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02 



THE MAKING 



OF 



WISCONSIN 



BY 

CARRIE J. SMITH 

FORMERLY TEACHER OF HISTORY 
RIVER FALLS STAIE NORMAL SCHOOL 



ILLUSTRATED 



A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 
CHICAGO 






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COPYRIGHT 1908 
BY 

A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 



CONTENTS 



I Wisconsin and the Eed Man 13 

II Wisconsin's Pioneer— 1634-1635 35 

III Two VoYAGEURS— 1654-1659 47 

IV Wisconsin's First Soldier of the Cross — 

1660-I66r ;.;; . . . : 56 

V Claude Allouez. Father of Wisconsin 

Missions— 1665-1676 64 

VI Perrot^ Prince of Forest Rangers — 

1665-1699 76 

VII The Mysterious River Flowing 

Southward— 1673 87 

VIII "The House That Walked Upon the 

Water"— 1679 105 

IX The Thorn IN THE Flesh— nPMr43 118 

X Wisconsin Becomes English Domain — 

1756-1763 137 

XI Wisconsin's First English Traveler — 

1766-1768 147 

XII Revolutionary Days— 1775-1783 156 

XII L The Northwest— 1780-1787 167 

XIV The Taking of Prairie du Chien— 1814. . 173 

5 



Q CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XV The Story of Red Bird— 1827 180 

XVI Early Settlements 192 

XVII Black Hawk War— 1832 199 

XVIII Our Xame axd Our Bouxdaries 223 

XIX Territorial Events 236 

XX Statehood and the Boundaries 250 

XXI The Underground Railroad 257 

XXII The Lost Dauphin 261 

XXIII Civil War Incidents 265 

XXIV Our Industries 278 

XXV Our Government, Our People and Our 

Schools 295 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

New State Capitol at Madison 2 

Eegions of Ice Masses (Map) 14 

Some Mound Forms 16 

Elephant Mound 17 

Man-Shaped Mound 18 

Wisconsin Indian Reservations (Map) 20 

Menominee Wooden Mortar and Pestle 22 

Indian Clay Vessel 23 

Location of Wisconsin Indians (Map) 24 

A Sioux Chief 26 

Indian Weapons 29 

Champlain 's Map, 1632 39 

NicoLET 's Landing at Green Bay 42 

The Wisconsin Eiver 48 

Huron Birch-Bark House 52 

Menard 's Route (Map) 59 

Picturesque Rocks of Wisconsin 65 

Soleil Presented to St. Francis Xavier Mission by Perrot. . 70 

The De Pere Monument to Allouez 73 

A Coureur de Bois • ■ • 77 

Supposed Site of Perrot 's Winter Quarters, 1685-6 84 

Louis Jolliet 88 

Father Marquette 89 

Marquette 's Manuscript Map 97 

7 



8 LIST OF TLLUSTEATIO^'S 

PAGE 

The Griffon 105 

Egbert de La Salle 106 

Henri de Tonti 110 

A Sioux Warrior 112 

Buffalo Drawn by Hennepin 115 

A Fox Chief 120 

The Dells of Wisconsin 128 

Line of French Forts (Map) 138 

Auuustin Grignon 143 

Captain Jonathan Carver 149 

Carver 's Wisconsin CIaim (Map) 154 

George Eogers Clark 160 

The Drummer Boy and the Sergeant 162 

Conflict of Claims to the Northwest (Map) 168 

Jefferson's Division of the Northwest Territory (Map)... 170 

Solomon Juneau 193 

Counties of Wisconsin in 1836 (Map) 197 

Cession of 1804 (Map) 200 

Black Hawk 203 

Map of Black Hawk War 207 

Black Hawk War Memorial, Fort Atkinson 218 

Maps of Territory Now Including Wisconsin — 

A (1800-1809) 224 

B (1809-1818) 225 

C (1818-1836) 226 

The Territory of Chippewau (Map) 227 

Division of Northwest Territory According to Ordinance of 

1787 (Map) 228 

Wisconsin Territory, 1836 (Map) 229 

The Capitol in 1869 232 

The Capitol in 1904 233 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 9 

PAGE 

Alexander Mitchell 237 

Gov. James D. Doty 239 

The Wisconsin Phalanx Long House Near Ripon 242 

Plates of Laban 246 

Map of Wisconsin 251 

Eleazer Williams 262 

A Farm in Northern Wisconsin 279 

Winter Scene in a Logging Camp 282 

Loading in the Woods 283 

Hauling Logs 284 

A Log Pond and Sawmill 285 

Prospect Farm and Guernsey Calves 286 

Creameries and Cheese Factories in Wisconsin (Map) 289 

Governor Davidson 's Tobacco Field 292 

State Historical Library, Madison 296 

Main Building, University of Wisconsin 297 

College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin 298 

University of Wisconsin Campus 299 

State Normal School, Whitewater 300 

Normal School at Stevens Point 306 



INTRODUCTION 

This little volume appeals to me in a variety of 
ways. Not only is it a clear, comprehensive review 
of the main forces that have builclecl this common- 
wealth; not only is it history — but in a sense it is 
prophecy, for it is written for the young, and in 
them lie the disposition of coming events. I am glad 
of its advent. We need more state pride in the 
hearts of our people. A study of the history of the 
United States leaves the student with the impres- 
sion that the destiny of our country has been con- 
tributed to mainly by two states, Massachusetts and 
Virginia. Nobly have they done their share, but 
here in the Mississippi valley lies the great heart of 
the Nation, and Wisconsin lies very close to that 
heart. An honest pride in one's state, vocation and 
home is one of the most powerful incentives to 
meritorious action, a builder of desirable character 
and citizenship. 

We are a wonderfully composite people. Wiscon- 
sin has felt the influence of two great waves of im- 
migration that have wrought its transformation out 
of a wilderness of exquisite beauty. It received in 
pioneer days the choicest blood of New England and 

11 



12 INTEODUCTION 

the Middle States. These people gave iis our match- 
less state constitution and laid the foundation of our 
system of laws and state institutions. Most im- 
pressively did they stamp the love they bore for 
education upon the unfolding thought of the state. 
But the spirit of conquest was in them, and they 
moved on, in a large measure, to build the states to 
the west. Following came the sturdy farmers and 
artisans of northern and middle Europe — the Ger- 
man, the Scandinavian, the Bohemian — with their 
intense love of the soil, industry and thrift. Born 
conservators of fertility, they have brought Wiscon- 
sin to the forefront in the prosperity of her agricul- 
ture and the advancement of agricultural education. 
It is a pleasant picture to contemplate. 

In the great field of industrial conquest of mind 
over matter, the building up of a noble civilization, 
the firm establishment of law, order and liberty, no 
state in the Union has made a prouder record. It 
is one that should fill the hearts of our youth with 
hope, ambition and honest purpose. 

W. I). Hoard. 

Fort Atkinson, Wis. 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



CHAPTER I 

WISCONSIN AND THE EED MAN 

If we may believe the story of the rocks, Wisconsin 
is old, much older than most of America and Europe, 
for the northern part of its surface was almost the 
first land of the continent to be lifted above the 
''waters that covered the earth." 

How many hundreds — nay, thousands — of years 
elapsed before this region was ready to be the dwell- 
ing-place of even the rudest savage, we cannot tell. 
We know that the land rose, sank beneath the waters, 
rose again and was covered, all but the southwestern 
portion, with vast masses of ice which plowed their 
way over its surface, scooping out hollows and val- 
leys which later were filled with water from the melt- 
ing ice. Thus was the land of the Badger State not 
only bounded on two sides by great fresh-water seas, 
but beautified, enriched and drained by more than 
two thousand lakes and many streams. 

The heat that melted the ice also made vegetation 
grow, thus in time covering the naked earth with for- 
ests and grasSj and it was ready for man. 

13 




REGIONS OP ICE MASSES 



WISCONSIN AND THE RED MAN 15 

Who the first dwellers within the borders of Wis- 
consin were, and whence they came, history does not 
tell. They left no records on parchment, paper or 
stone of their origin or race. We can only guess 
about them, fancy, imagine and end by saying, ' ' We 
do not know. ' ' 

But we do know that when the first white man, on 
his way to find the Great Sea (the Pacific), set foot 
upon Wisconsin's soil, its fertile valleys were already 
fruitful with maize grown by the Red Man, its 
streams and forests teeming with fish and game 
which he skillfully made the victim of his bow, spear 
and net, its natural lines of travel marked by popu- 
lous Indian villages. 

Many have believed and many would still like to 
believe that these Eed Men were not the first comers, 
that a people of different race, manners and customs 
preceded them and were driven out by them ; but this 
belief seems not to be founded on facts. Its proof 
has rested upon the various mounds of earth scat 
tered over this and neighboring states, said to have 
been built by a peculiar people, who have been called, 
for lack of a better name. Mound Builders. 

That these mounds exist is true. Built upon the 
banks of streams and lakes or on neighboring high- 
lands are thousands of them — some mere piles of 
earth overgrown with grass, others rude outlines of 
bird, turtle, lizard, snake, squirrel, deer or buffalo, 
man and weapons (the club and spear), and still 



16 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 




SOME MOUND FORMS 



others in parallel lines Laving circles and corners, 
with high earthworks enclosed. 

Of the last-named forms the most famous, and the 
only one of its kind in Wisconsin, is that at Aztalan, 
Jefferson County, discovered about seventy years 
ago. It was long believed to have been a citadel for 
defense, its position on Rock River seeming to give 
color to this belief, but excavations made in recent 
years have shown that it may have been a burial or 
worship mound, or possibly both. Two bodies in a 
sitting posture have been found in it, and various 
fragments of earthenware — broken vessels varying 
in width from a few inches to three feet. The wall 



WISCONSIN AND THE RED MAN 



17 



making the enclosure is nearly three thousand feet 
long and the ridge, when first examined, was twenty- 
two feet wide. At regular intervals on the outside 
were mounds about eighty feet apart and forty feet 
in diameter. 

Of the man-shaped mounds, the most nearly per- 
fect one is that near Baraboo, Sauk County. This 



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ELEPHANT MOUND 



represents a giant striding toward the setting sun, 
with a body one hundred eighty-four feet and a head 
thirt}" feet long. 

Who were the builders of these strange tumuli! 
For what purpose were they built — for worship, 
burial, defense, as dwelling-sites or as clan totems? 

Men have earnestlv searched and studied in their 



18 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



desire to answer these ques- 
tions. They have dug into the 
depths of hundreds of the 
mounds, and are now practi- 
cally agreed that they are the 
work not of a peculiar race 
preceding the Indians, but of 
the Indians themselves; not, 
indeed, those whom the French 
explorers found dwelling here, 
for the mounds were even then 
old and the Indians denied all 
knowledge of them — their pur- 
pose or how they came to be — 
but of the forefathers of these 
and kindred tribes/ 

Wisconsin probably was oc- 
cupied by two or three differ- 
ent mound-building tribes, the 

common mound forms, found also extensively in other 
states, being burial sites, while the figures, peculiar 
to Wisconsin, may have been worship huts, dwelling 
sites, council houses or defensive earthworks. No 
positive statement concerning them can yet be made.' 

The fact that the Indians found here by the Euro- 




MAN-SHAPED MOUND 



1 "That the mound-builders were Indians pertaining to or ancestors 
of the tribes inhabiting this country when discovered by Europeans is 
now too well established to admit of a reasonable doubt." — Cyrus Thomas, 
of the Bureau of Ethnology. 

2 "It is a curious fact that the most flourishing cities of the southern 
half of the state, Milwaukee, Madison, Beloit, Waukesha, Fort Atkinson, 



WISCONSIN AND THE RED MAN 19 

peans disclaimed all knowledge of these mounds and 
that they no longer built them is of no especial 
importance in determining their builders. Many 
modern peoples have dropped customs of their an- 
cestors, and, had no records been kept, would prob- 
ably" show total ignorance of them. 

Accepting, then, the results of study and research 
and discarding mere conjecture, we should drop from 
our history the term Mound Builder as meaning a 
distinct, singular race of people. If we use it at all, 
we should do so meaning simply mound-building 
Indians. 

So far as we know, then, the Red Man was the 
original owner of the soil of Wisconsin, if priority 
of discovery followed by settlement constitutes a 
basis of ownership for any but the white man. The 
Red Man it was who roamed at will over valley and 
forest, prairie and stream, raising his crops of maize, 
beans, squashes and tobacco in summer and hunting 
the buffalo, elk, moose, bear, deer and beaver in 
winter. He it was whom the white man slew, de- 
spoiled of his lands, drove beyond the confines of 
the state, or penned up within a few undesirable 
acres called reservations.^ By might, not right, did 

Pewaiikee, Sheboygan, Racine. Manitowoc, Prairie du Cliien, are located 
whore the presence of numerous mounds show that prehistoric villages 
once existed, for these mounds have been located usually on the natural 
lines of travel, and the places where groups of them have been found, 
show evidences of earlier occupation by considerable numbers of people '" 
— Henry E. Legler. 

1 There are in Wisconsin at the present time six reservations, com- 
prising a total of 337.624 acres. Where the Indian once owned all, he 
now owns a meager fraction, about 1-100. 



20 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



"'fo curr 

J^A POlNTf 



the white man enter and possess the land, for he 
looked upon it and saw that it was good. 

That it was not the English but the French who be- 
gan this work of dispossession and spoliation is acci- 
dental, a mere matter of geography and not of 
superior morality. The French began, the English 

completed, and we, 
their descendants, en- 
joy the spoils. 

The belief that 
there is no good 
Indian but a dead 
one is responsible for 
many of the wrongs 
done the Red Man, 
greed may account 
for the remainder. 
That the Indian was 
and is a savage — 
cruel, crafty, ofttimes 
treacherous and 
faithless — is doubt- 
less true, but the white man has not always been 
kind, open, trustworthy and without guile even in 
his relations with his brother white man. 

The simple truth is, our ancestors wanted the val- 
leys o-f the Eock, the Wisconsin, the Fox, the Chip- 
pewa, the Mississippi, for their own use. To obtain 
these they must dispossess the original owners. This 




WISCONSIN INDIAN RESERVATIONS 



WISCONSIN AND THE RED MAN 21 

they did, for the most part by fire and sword, by 
superior numbers and skill, not by honorable pur- 
chase and treaty. 

From the few representatives left within our bor- 
ders to-day (less than ten thousand, and that num- 
ber yearly decreasing) we can learn little of our 
first inhabitants, for the Indians are a people of 
legend and tradition handed down from generation 
to generation, and not of recorded history. If we 
would know of them — their life, manners, customs, 
beliefs — we must go to the records of the French ex- 
plorers and missionaries who first visited them, 
traded with them and lived among them. 

From scattered letters and journals of these men, 
we learn that Wisconsin was once the home of differ- 
ent nations of three of the greatest Indian stocks — 
the Iroquois, the Sioux, and the Algonquins. 

The Hurons, kindred of the Iroquois, yet harried 
and pursued with fury by these fierce savages, took 
refuge in the forests of northern Wisconsin, where 
they disputed the ground with the Chippewas, an 
Algonquin nation. 

The Algonquins were the most numerous of the 
Wisconsin Indians and also the most intelligent. To 
prove this latter assertion, we have only to cite the 
fact that Powhatan, King Philip, Tecumseh, Pontiac 
and Black Hawk were all of this stock. 

Of the many Algonquin tribes which made their 
home within our borders, the Menominees are the 



22 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

only ones still living here. They are fine looking and 
of light complexion, the latter mark of distinction 
said by the French to be due to their eating so freely 
of the wild rice abundant in their lakes and streams. 
They used to believe that they had once been animals 
or birds and that they had been changed into human 
beings at the mouth of the Menominee River where 




MENOMINEE WOODEN MORTAR AND PESTLE 

Marinette now stands. At the death of any one of 
them a picture of the animal from which he was de- 
scended was painted on a board and placed at the 
head of his grave. 

The Pottawattomies, on the islands of Green Bay, 
were the most restless of the Algonquin tribes. Later 
we find them at Sault Ste. Marie, driven there by the 
Sioux. These are the Indians whose traditions gave 
to Longfellow much of the material for ''Hiawatha.'' 



WISCONSIN AND THE EED MAN 



23 



The Sacs (Saiiks) and Foxes (Outagamies), once 
friends of the French, became their bitter enemies. 
Against them and them only of the Algonquins the 
French for many years waged one of the most bar- 
barous of wars. They at first lived in the Fox River 
valley, but later the valleys of the Rock and Wiscon- 
sin were covered 
by their trails and 
dotted with their 
villages. 

The Mascoutens, 
the ^' Fire Nation," 
were an Algonquin 
tribe dwelling in 
the Green Lake re- 
gion. They have 
disappeared from 
the face of the 
earth, no trace of 
them having been 
discovered since the time of the Revolutionary War. 

The Kickapoos once lived on the Wisconsin River, 
l)ut long ago they journeyed south and became ab- 
sorbed in the Creek nation. 

Mightiest of Wisconsin hunters were the supple 
Chippewas, or Ojibwas, as they called themselves. 
They crowded out the Sioux from the Lake Superior 
region and forced them to remain near the Missis- 
sippi, St. Croix and St. Louis Rivers, but it took them 




INDIAN CLAY VESSEL 



24 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 




LOCATION OF WISCONSIN INDIANS 



nearly a century of bitter warfare to do it. The 
Chippewas had but one word for '' Sioux '^ and 
' ' enemy. ' ' 

The Winnebagoes, of Sioux stock, occupied the 
region of Lake Winnebago. At present they are said 
to be the ^'poorest, meanest and most ill-visaged of 
Wisconsin Indians/' but originally they were war- 
like, of fine physique and great strength. 



WISCONSIN AND THE RED MAN 25 

These, in brief, were the Indians of Wisconsin 
when the country was first visited by the French. We 
have only to glance at a county map of the state at 
the present time to get a fair idea of their location. 

That the Indians were not much more numerous 
than they were in those days before the white man 
had reduced their number, is due to famine and pesti- 
lence and their many wars. We know that tribe 
warred upon tribe, nation upon nation, kinsman 
against kinsman, as their white brethren have done 
through all time. But, cruel and savage as was their 
warfare, this did not reduce their numbers as did 
famine and pestilence. Disease naturally follows 
war, and in a settlement of savage people who know 
nothing of sanitation, fatal epidemics are unavoid- 
able. Winter was always a time of famine, for al- 
though the Indian raised crops of maize, squash and 
beans, his methods of farming were so crude that his 
harvests were not abundant. 

One of the earliest French explorers of Wisconsin 
spent a winter in a famine-stricken village and has 
left a description of it. Wlien the winter hunt failed, 
scores of men, women and children slowly starved to 
death. Letting to-morrow take care of itself, the 
Indian starved in what might easily have been a land 
of plenty. The story of Minnehaha, Laughing 
Water, of whose sad death from famine Longfellow 
sings so sweetly, finds hundreds of parallels in the 
history of the long, cold winters of Wisconsin before 



26 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 




A SIOUX CHIEF 



the white man possessed the land. Often these 
people escaped starvation only by eating acorns, 
bark, fur robes and ground bones. 

Contrary to general belief, the Indians were not a 
wandering race. They were, as a rule, devotedly at- 
tached to their native soil, and their villages were as 



WISCONSIN AND THE RED MAN 27 

numerous in proportion to their numbers as are tlie 
cities of the white man. The Foxes and the Winne- 
bagoes lived in the same localities for many genera- 
tions, and when the former were driven out by the 
French, they tried again and again to return. It is 
true that they moved about some, but this was to find 
game and fish, and was within what were to them 
well-defined limits. 

The Indians were divided into clans, and each clan 
had its sign — bird, beast or reptile — this sign being 
called totem by the Algonquins. There were differ- 
ent tribes in the same clan, and they often spoke dif- 
ferent languages, but the members of a clan were 
always closely bound together. In the wigwam of a 
clansman, far from his own home, an Indian was as 
welcome as in his own village. 

The Indians had no settled form of government. 
True, they had tribal heads, called chiefs, but these 
chiefs could only advise, not command. Even the war 
chiefs had no more power, their real influence coming 
from their personal force or past achievements, not 
from delegated authority. They could say to their 
tribes only, "It would be better to do so and so.'' 

Should a war chief desire to undertake an expedi- 
tion against some neighboring or faraway tribe, he 
would fast for several days, then invite the young 
braves to a feast of dog-flesh at night, he himself, 
lowever, still fasting. After eating, the guests would 
form in a circle, whereupon he would suddenly leap 



28 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

in among them and recite to them in loud, monoto- 
nous tones the wonderful deeds he and his ancestors 
had done, accompanying this recital with gestures 
expressive of shooting, tomahawking and scalping, 
usually slashing at a post that represented the 
enemy, but occasionally making a feint of attacking 
some one in the circle. 

Thus worked up to an excitement that bordered on 
madness, the warriors would follow his example, giv- 
ing their terrible war whoop with all the power of 
their savage lungs. This, the oft-referred-to war 
dance, was their enlistment for war. The next morn- 
ing, covered with war paint and adorned with 
feathers, they left the village, the war whoop still 
resounding, until, at a short distance out, they re- 
lieved themselves of their finery and stole through 
the forest in single file, stealthy, silent, swift. 

The weapons used by the Indian in warfare were 
the tomahawk, the war club and the bow and arrow. 
The first-named had a stone blade shaped like a 
hatchet and fastened to a wooden handle by means 
of thongs. War clubs were made in a similar man- 
ner, these being used to brain the foe in battle. 

The bow and arrow were the implements of the 
chase as well as weapons in war. Buffaloes were very 
numerous along the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers 
and on southern Wisconsin prairies. Elk, moose, 
deer and even caribou were found in the forests of 
the central and northern parts. Deer were hunted 



WISCONSIN AND THE RED MAN 



29 



all through the year, but the bear and the beaver were 
the principal objects of the winter hunt. 

To hunt the larger animals big parties often 
were formed, but small game was plentiful near 




INDIAN WEAPONS 



home. When wild ducks came to eat the wild rice in 
the Fox Eiver, they were snared with nets. Pigeons 
by the hundreds, swan, geese and even wild turkeys, 
were caught in nets spread in open places in the 
woods. 



30 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

The Indian used nets in fishing, also, but spearing 
was practised when conditions were favorable. 
Whitefish, trout and sturgeon were al)undant. 

Feasts and ceremonials of various kinds were com- 
mon among the Indians. In these the calumet, or 
peace-pipe, played an important part. Its name sig- 
nifies its use, it being always the token of friendship 
and peace. 

In ^'Hiawatha'' Longfellow tells us that the adop- 
tion of the peace-pipe occurred somewhere in the 
vicinity of Lake Superior — that here the Great 
Spirit, Gitche Manito the Mighty, called the nations 
together in council. They came with painted faces 
and hearts burning with hereditary hatred. The 
Great Spirit was moved with pity. 

From the red stone of the quarry 
With his hand he broke a fragment, 
Moulded it into a pipe-head, 
Shaped and fashioned it with figures; 
From the margin of the river 
Took a long reed for a pipe-stem. 
With its dark green leaves upon it; 
Filled the pipe with bark of willow, 
With the bark of the red willow; 
Breathed upon the neighboring forest, 
Made its great boughs chafe together. 
Till in flame they burst and kindled. 

He then told the warriors to bathe in the stream 
and wash the war paint from their faces and the 
blood from their hands ; to bury their war clubs and 
to make for themselves the pipe of peace. This they 
did. 

And departed each one homeward. 



WISCONSIN AND THE KED MAN 31 

The Indians not only made tents, or tepees, of 
pelts, bnt they also built roomy cabins and forts of 
bark. For their cabins the Hurons drove into the 
ground long poles as thick as a man's leg, joined 
them by bending, and fastened them ^Yith strips of 
basswood bark. Cross-pieces a little less in diameter 
were interwoven between these poles, and the whole 
was then covered with fir or cedar bark. A door at 
each end gave entrance. The cabins were often large 
enough for several families. 

The forts were made of stakes planted in three 
rows. The outside row were as thick as a man's 
thigh and thirty feet high, the stakes in this and the 
second row being about seven inches apart. The 
second row, a foot inside the first, supported the first 
b}^ leaning over at the top. The third row, four feet 
from the first, was made of the trunks of trees fif- 
teen or sixteen feet high, placed very close together. 
Loopholes were cut in the timbers, the whole making 
a structure of strong defense. 

The Sioux made their cabins of buffalo skins, 
which they laced and sewed together. The Pottawat- 
tomies built theirs of mats made of reeds. 

The Indians of the Great Lakes were fortunate in 
having at hand and in great abundance the birch to 
furnish bark for their canoes. In ''Hiawatha" 
Longfellow describes how these canoes were made, — 

''Give nie of yonr bark, O Bireli-Treel 
Of voiir volloW bark, O Birch-Tree! 



33 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

I a light canoe will build me, 

* * * 

That shall float upon the river, 

Like a yellow leaf in autumn! " 

* * * 

With his knife the tree he girdled; 
Just beneath its lowest branches, 
Just above the roots he cut it. 
Till the sap came oozing outward; 
Down the trunk, from top to bottom, 
Sheer he cleft the bark asunder. 
With a wooden wedge he raised it, 
Stripped it from the trunk unbroken. 

''Give me of your boughs, O Cedar! 
Of your strong and pliant branches. 
My canoe to make more steady, 
Make more strong and firm beneath me ! ' ' 

Down he hewed the boughs of cedar. 
Shaped them straightway to a framework, 
Like two bows he formed and shaped them, 
Like two bended bows together. 

''Give me of your roots, O Tamarack! 

* * * * 

My canoe to bind together, 
So^ to bind the ends together 
That tlie water may not enter, 
That the river may not wet me! " 

Tf * * 

From the earth he tore the fibres, 
Tore the tough roots of the Larch-Tree, 
Closely sewed the bark together, 
Bound it closely to the framework. 

"Give me of your balm, O Fir-Tree! 
Of your balsam and your resin. 
So to close the seams together 
That the water may not enter, 

That tlie river may not wet me! " 

* * # 

And he took the tears of balsam. 
Took the resin of the Fir-Tree, 
Smeared therewith each seam and fissure, 
Made each crevice safe from water. 



WISCONSIN AND THE EED MAN 33 

Thus the Birch Canoe was buikled 
In the valley, by the river, 
In tlie bosom of the forest. 

In the southern i)art of the state, where there is no 
birch, the Indians made "dugouts," canoes formed 
of the hollo wed-out trunks of butternut trees. They 
used the butternut in preference to lighter woods be- 
cause they believed it stood long contact with water 
better, and was less likely to be injured by the 
boulders and gravel they were often obliged to run 
over. 

Life among the Indians was not all made up of 
hunting, fishing and fighting. They had their games 
of chance and skill. In summer they played a kind 
of ball game called la crosse, from the crosse 
(racquet) used by each player to receive and return 
the ball. This game was not unlike a combination of 
modern tennis and football. 

The Eed Man was a born gambler, and in all his 
games of chance was inclined to play for heavy 
stakes. The Indians often made large bets on la 
crosse, but the dish game and "straws" were their 
favorite gambling games. 

Wisconsin Indians, in common with others of their 
race, had a religion, and, such as it was, followed it 
faithfully. They believed in good and evil spirits, 
and in almost every step they took prayed for the 
aid of the good spirit or sought to appease the evil 
one. They offered sacrifices with ceremonies, re- 



34 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

minding us of the ancient peoples of Europe and 
Asia. During storms they would often throw a dog 
into the lake, saying to the manito, or spirit, ''That 
is to appease thee. ' ^ 

In Emerson's "Indian Myths'' is given the Win- 
nebago tradition corresponding to the Bible story of 
the creation of man and woman: 

''Having created the earth and the grass and the 
trees, the Great Spirit took a piece out of his heart, 
near which had been taken the earth, and formed 
the fragment into a man. The woman was then 
made, but a bit of flesh sufficed for her ; therefore it 
is that man became great in wisdom, but the woman 
very much wanting in sense. To the man was given 
the tobacco seed, that, thrown upon the fire, it 
might propitiate the messenger — manitos to convey 
prayers or supplications; to the woman a seed of 
every kind of grain was given, and to her were indi- 
cated the roots and herbs for medicine. Now the 
Great Spirit commanded the two to look down; and 
they looked down, when lo ! there stood a child 
between them. Enjoining the pair to take care of all 
the children they might obtain in the future, he 
created the male and female the first parents of all 
tribes upon the earth. He then informed them, in 
the Winnebago language, that they should live in the 
center of the earth. The Spirit then created the 
beasts and birds for the use of all mankind ; but the 
tobacco and fire were given to the Winnebagoes." 



CHAPTEE II 

WISCONSIN 'S PIONEEE— 1634-1635 

In July, 1634 — twenty-seven years after the settle- 
ment of Jamestown, fourteen years after the May- 
flower anchored in Plymouth Bay, and two years be- 
fore Roger Williams fled from Boston into the 
wilderness — a canoe, with its prow turned up stream, 
was launched in the Ottawa River at Montreal. 
With steady, swift, sure strokes of the j^addles were 
the waters of the rushing current parted, and 
steadily, swiftly, surely did the canoe press forward, 
bearing to Wisconsin her first white visitor, Jean 
Nicolet. 

Who was he, and what sought he in this vast 
wilderness inhabited only by savage beast and still 
more savage man? What purpose was strong 
enough to give him courage to venture into this wild 
unknown, by a long and tedious waterway full of 
peril and hardship ? 

Jean Nicolet was a French youth of Normandy, 
son of a mail carrier. He came to New France in 
1618, when the Quebec settlement was only ten years 
old and Montreal seven. He himself was very young, 
young enough to be filled with that spirit of adven- 
ture and daring which leads men through all dangers 

35 



36 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



and privations if only they may find the new, the un- 
trodden, the unexplored the same spirit that has ani- 
mated Arctic explorers for nearly two centuries. 

Champlain was then Governor of New France — a 
brave, daring, adventurous spirit, tempered with 
wisdom and judgment. A keen student of his fellow 
men, Champlain soon recognized in this stripling 
qualities which would make him an able lieutenant 
in furthering the governor's own ambitious plans, 
and he speedily found employment for young Xicolet. 
He sent him to spread French influence among the 
Indians, an honorable and dangerous mission. 

Strange as it may seem, the finest young men of 
France, coming to the New World, were sent to live 
among the Indians, to learn their language, to be- 
come their friends, not that they might advance their 
own interests, but that they might thus add to the 
glory and riches of the loved mother country by 
helping to extend her empire and her fur-trade. 

Nicolet was first sent to the Algonquins along the 
Ottawa Kiver about three hundred miles from Que- 
bec. Here, with no faces but the copper-colored ones 
of Indians about him, hearing not one word of his 
native tongue, he spent two years — years of hardshi}) 
and peril, for as usual the Red Men were wasteful 
and heedless of the future, the natural result being 
the winter's famine. Starvation is not a pleasant 
companion, but Nicolet did not lose courage, even 
though once for a period of seven weeks he had no 



WISCONSIN'S PIONEER 37 

food but -the bark of trees, and at another time lie had 
not a morsel to eat for an entire week. 

Afterward Nicolet was stationed among the Nipis- 
sings, near the lake of that name. He lived with them 
many years, probably ten or twelve. During that 
time he became one with the Indians, learning their 
language and entering into their life, thereby gain- 
ing much influence over them. There must liave been 
much in his nature akin to theirs, or else not even the 
love of France would have been a sufficiently power- 
ful motive to induce him to remain away from the 
comforts of friends and home for over ten years. 

But in the course of time even his zeal and devo- 
tion began to flag, and he asked to be permitted to 
return to civilized life. His request was granted, 
and about 1632 he returned to Quebec, where he 
remained as clerk and interpreter for two years. 

Champlain was dreaming the same dream that 
Columbus had dreamed a century and a half before. 
That will-o'-the-wisp, a short route to the Indies 
and fabulous wealth, had lured Columbus to the 
discovery of a new continent, and the same delu- 
sion — a short highway to China (Cathay) and Japan 
(Cipango) — caused Champlain to have visions of 
fame, honor, and wealth for his country and himself. 
Through him it led the brave and devoted Nicolet 
into the very heart of Wisconsin, for Champlain, in 
common with others, believed that only a narrow 
stri]) of land separated the Great Lakes from China. 



38 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

At this time the Indians were the source of all 
geographical knowledge of the New World west of 
the narrow Atlantic strip. Guided by their reports, 
Champlain drew a map, absurd and inaccurate of 
course, and this he gave to Nicolet in July, 1634, 
with instructions to proceed westward, making peace 
between the different tribes as he went, for it was to 
the interest of the French fur-trade that the Indians 
along the water route to the West should not be at 
war. 

We see from this map that something was known 
of Lake Superior and Green Bay,^ although some 
writers hold that Lake Michigan was meant by the 
latter. Lake Winnebago and the Fox Eiver had been 
heard of, but the knowledge of the general contour 
and relative location of these different bodies of 
water was, as may be seen, very inaccurate. 

The Mascoutens of the Fox River region and also 
another nation living near Green Bay were not un- 
known by report ; the latter were said to be a strange 
people of different language and customs from the 
Indians — "Men of the Sea," as they were called. 
Nicolet was given a special message to these people, 
for Champlain believed them to be the rich Orientals 
of his dreams. 

Nicolet was, indeed, well fitted for this perilous 
undertaking. His years of life among the Indians 

* This body of water was called Bay des Tuants (Bay of the Bad 
Smell) by the French who lirst came here. 



WISCONSIN'S PIONEER 



39 



had given him physical strength and endurance, a 
knowledge of their language and their habits, and 
influence over them, all indispensable to the task 
before him. The lack of any one of these qualities 




CIIAMPLAIN'S MAP — 1632 

would have added many fold to the dangers of the 
enterprise and the possibility of its failure. 

His route was up the Ottawa, past his old station 
among the Algonquins, then up a branch of the Ot- 
tawa and by easy portage to Lake Nipissing, across 
this lake, and, for the time being his westward course 
abandoned, down the French Eiver to Georgian Bay. 

Being familiar with the language of the Hurons, 
with whom he now tarried a short time, he told them 
of the desire of their White Father to make peace be- 



40 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

tween them and the Winnebagoes, the "Men of the 
Sea." 

Starting out again, this time with seven Indians, 
jDrobably Hurons, he went back to the French River, 
and there began his passage westward into the un- 
known. Slowly but surely, ever toward the setting 
sun, the gleaming paddles carried them, until they 
reached the Sault Ste. Marie, a river which connects 
I^akes Superior and Huron. Here at the rapids they 
rested. It is possible that Nicolet made short excur- 
sions from this point, and, so doing, saw Lake Su- 
perior, but that he explored it to any extent is not 
probable. Had he done so, some record of this great 
discovery would have been made, especially as his 
travels are very fully recorded in the annals of his 
time. 

On re-embarking, he turned to the south and 
reached the isle of Mackinac, from which he could 
see the vast expanse of Lake Michigonong — the 
first white man to gaze upon its waters. This lake 
has since been called by many different names — 
Mitchiganon, Lake St. Joseph, Lake Dauphin, Algon- 
quin Lake, and Lake of the Illinois — but finally 
Michigan, a corruption of the Indian Michigonong, 
prevailed. 

From Mackinac, Nicolet skirted the northern shore 
of Lake Michigan until he reached the mouth of the 
Menominee River, where Marinette now stands, and 
at last set foot upon Wisconsin's soil. Here he met 



WISCONSIN'S PIONEER 41 

the Menominee Indians, a nnmerous Algonqnin 
tribe whose descendants to-day occnpy a reservation 
in Shawano and Oconto counties. These Indians, as 
has been said, were of light complexion, due, as the 
French thought, to their eating the wild rice of their 
rivers. 

Learning from them that he was ?iot far from the 
country of the mysterious ''Men of the Sea" whom 
he had come to seek, he was anxious to go on. He 
sent one of his Hurons in advance to tell them of his 
coming. In anticipation of meeting richly arrayed 
Orientals, Nicolet had brought with him a gorgeously 
embroidered damask robe, reminding one of Joseph's 
coat of many colors. In this he dressed himself, his 
heart beating high with anticipation and hope of at 
last realizing the dreams of his master and friend, 
the Father of New France. He thought he had 
reached China. 

Imagine, then, his feelings, when he stepped ashore 
at the head of Green Bay, repeatedly firing a pistol 
in the air to give dramatic effect to his landing, to 
see drawn up in motley array to greet him a crowd 
of squalid savages clad in moccasins and skins as 
were all the other Indians whom he knew so well ! 

He was wise enough, however, to conceal his disap- 
pointment and make the best of what was before him. 
His brilliantly flowered gown and mysterious fire and 
smoke greatly impressed the simple AVinnebagoes 
and they gave him friendly greeting. Their language 



WISCONSIN'S PIONEEE 43 

(wliicli it is said no wliite man has ever learned) was 
of course unknown to him, but througli his Huron 
guides he made them understand the friendly feel- 
ings of their ^' White Father" toward them, and 
urged them to bring their furs to Montreal to ex- 
change for articles of value to them, and also to make 
peace with the Hurons. 

His overtures were received in the most friendly 
manner. The Indians of the surrounding region 
were summoned, and they made a great feast, as was 
their custom on such occasions. Some writers say 
that there were five thousand savages there to greet 
him, but this estimate is probably too large. But 
that the number was considerable or their appetites 
keen we may believe, for they consumed one hundred 
beavers, besides many deer and much other forest 
game. 

But Nicolet was not yet ready to return to Cham- 
plain with the report of his success and failure. He 
was at the head of Green Bay where the Fox River 
enters. He had heard much of this rich valley and 
had been told that the rivers abounded with fish and 
the land teemed with a large population, even as it 
does to-day. He determined to learn more of this 
valley and its people before turning homeward. 

He ascended the Fox Eiver to Lake Winnebago, 
crossed the lake, re-entered the river and ascended 
it until he reached an Indian village. Thus did he 
make the acquaintance of another Wisconsin tribe. 



44 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

the Mascoutens, their name signifying ''land bare 
of trees." This village was probably near where 
Berlin, Green Connty, now stands, in a region of 
slightly wooded prairie. 

AVliile among these Indians, Nicolet learned of the 
Mississippi River, bnt either he did not understand 
them or the author of the Jesuit Relation of 1643 did 
not understand him, for in that we read that "had he 
sailed three days more" he would have reached the 
''Great Sea." * 

The Indians may have told him that if he traveled 
up the river three days more he would reach a branch 
(Wisconsin) of the "great water" that flowed to the 
sea. This seems probable, for we know that had he 
paddled up the Fox for three days he would have 
reached the place where the Fox and Wisconsin riv- 
ers are separated by only a mile of easy portage, the 
location of the present city of Portage. 

It seems strange that Nicolet should have turned 
his face eastward after hearing this remarkable 
news, but we must remember that, after all, his chief 
mission was not to explore but to make peace between 
the Indians so that the French might without moles- 
tation extend their fur-trade. This he had accom- 
plished. But we cannot but regret that, being so near 
the mighty Father of Waters, he did not go forward 
and thus make the great discovery which would have 
amply rewarded him for the long and perilous 
journey of eleven hundred miles that he had made. 



WISCONSIN'S PIONEER 45 

But this was left for others of his race to do, and 
he, as some authorities tell us, turned southward and 
visited the Illinois, returning after a short time to 
the Fox Eiver and Green Bay, there visiting the Pot- 
tawattomies, and thence home by the same route he 
had traveled a year before. He reached Montreal in 
July, 1635. 

The following Christmas, New France lost one of 
her greatest governors and Nicolet his best friend, 
for Champlain died. With him seemed to die the 
spirit of exploration among the French, for during 
the next twenty years no one appeared to follow up 
and reap the fruits of Nicolet 's achievement. The 
fact that the Iroquois were active in hostilities dur- 
ing tliis time may explain this in part. 

In 1637, Nicolet married a goddaughter of Cham- 
plain, and prepared after a score of years of savage 
life to enjoy the comforts of family and home at 
Three Rivers. In 1642, he was called to Quebec to 
act as commissary. Here, beloved by Frencllman 
and Indian alike, he spent his time performing the 
duties of his office and in ministering to the sick and 
afflicted, for he was a gentle, pious man, who de- 
lighted in serving humanity. 

On the evening of October 27, 1642, word was 
brought to him that some Algonquin Indians at Three 
Rivers were torturing an Indian prisoner. He 
hastily secured a launch and with four companions 
hurried up the St. Lawrence to the relief of the vie- 



46 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

tim. The sudden uprising of a tempest November 1 
filled the boat with water and Nicolet, being unable to 
swim, could not save himself. Dying bravely, as he 
had lived, he called to a companion, who was saved, 

* ^ I am going to God. I commend to you my wife and 
daughter. ' ' 

Thus passed away, while on an errand of mercy, 
Wisconsin's pioneer — a man brave, simple, sincere, 
full of piety and devotion to duty. To our shame be 
it said, his name is not blazoned on the map of our 
state. No lake, no stream, no village, no city, no 
county perpetuates the memory of him who blazed 
the path to the great West. 

There is some disagreement among historians as 
to the exact date when Nicolet visited Wisconsin, 
some arguing for 1638-9, others for that given in this 
chapter, 1634-5. Belief in the accuracy of the latter 
date is gradually gaining ground as the old records 
are more thoroughly searched. The parish register 
of Three Eivers shows that Nicolet was present in 
that parish both in 1638 and in 1639. Besides, as 
Sutte, author of ^^Life of Nicolet,'' says : 

**I cannot see any reason why Nicolet would have 
visited Wisconsin after the death of Champlain; 
after he had abandoned the life of the woods ; after 
he had got married ; after he had become an employe 
of the principal commercial company of Canada; 

* * * at a time when his presence at Three Rivers 
was so important both in winter and in summer." 



CHAPTER III 



TWO VOYAGEUES— 1654-3 656 



The coming of Nicolet to Wisconsin was followed by 
greater events, but not immediately. As lias been 
previously said, Nicolet 's discoveries were deemed of 
so little importance that for twenty years no attempt 
was made to retrace the path he had made through 
the wilderness. The French were not colonizers, but 
fur-traders and .missionaries. Had the French gov- 
ernment enbouraged its colonists to adopt the agri- 
cultural life instead of urging them to roam the 
wilderness in search of furs or to convert the Indians 
to the Eoman Catholic faith, the history of Wisconsin 
might have been very different. As it was, those in 
authority counted the beaver skins and the number of 
baptisms and were content. 

Champlain the far-sighted was dead and a lesser 
man ruled in his stead as Governor of New France. 
The Iroquois, ever bitter foes of the French and their 
Indian allies, were on the warpath. They destroyed 
every one of the missions established among the 
Hurons with so much zeal, self-sacrifice and devotion. 
They menaced every mile of the trail from Quebec 
to the Sault Ste. Marie. Not until the worst of the 

47 



TWO VOYAGEURS 49 

bitter struggle with the savages was over did French- 
men again turn their faces westward. 

The Jesuit Belation^ tells of two nameless voya- 
geurs who returned to Quebec in August, 1656, 
after a two years' sojourn in the Green Bay country. 
Who these men were we have no means of knowing 
except through a manuscript picked up in a London 
shop a century later. This manuscript, written by 
one Pierre Radisson, is a remarkable specimen of 
poor English and poorer spelling, our grammar and 
orthography, especially the latter, presenting insur- 
mountable difficulties to the Frenchman. 

In this journal, Eadisson states that he and his 
brother-in-law, Menard Grosseilliers, visited the 
Green Bay region in 1654-6 ; hence they may be the 
two unnamed voyageurs of the Jesuit Relation. He 
tells in a Yevy interesting manner how they visited 
the Ottawas, ''ye nation of ye stairing haires," and 
tarried with the famous Fire Nation (Mascoutens) 
on the Fox River, who received them as hospitably 
as they had received Nicolet a score of years before. 
These Indians Radisson describes- as " a f aire, proper 
nation ; they are tall and big and very strong. ' ' The 
two men also visited the Pottawattomies, spending a 
winter with them. 

They claimed to have made, while with the Mas- 

^ During the reign of Louis XIV there were printed in France an- 
nually from 1632 to 1672. little pamphlets which told of the journeys 
and sufferings of Jesuit priests in the New World. These constitute 
our main authority for the pioneer history of the St. Lawrence, Missis- 
sippi and Great Lakes regions. 



50 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

coutens, a canoe voyage to "ye greate river" 
(the Mississippi)/ 

If we may credit this account, these two voyageurs 
were the real discoverers of the upper Mississippi. 
But there are many weak points in the narrative. It 
is known that Radisson was in Three Rivers about 
a year before the time at which he says he and 
Grosseilliers returned from the West, and it is im- 
possible that they could have descended the Missis- 
sippi, as he asserts they did, for they were not gone 
long enough. It is therefore extremely doubtful 
whether these two explorers, in their first voyage, 
really went much farther than did their predecessor, 
tiean Nicolet. 

Their consiDicuous place in Wisconsin history rests 
not on their first voyage but on their second. In the 
spring of 1659, Radisson and Grosseilliers made a 
compact to "travel and see countreys.'' Radisson, 
though the younger, seems to have been the bolder 
spirit and to have assumed the leadership. They 
started out in the darkness of midnight, for the gov- 
ernor, for some unknown reason, was opposed to 
their enterprise. 



1 "We are 4 moneths on our voyage, without doeing anything but goe 
from river to river," Radisson writes. "We met several sorts of people. 
By the persuasion of some of them, we went into ye greate river that 
divides itself in 2, where the hurrons with some Ottanaks [Hurons and 
Ottawas] and the wild men that had warrs with them had retired [an 
island in the Mississippi above Lake Pepin]. This nation [Mascoutens] 
have warrs against those of the forked river. It is so called because 
It has 2 branches, the one towards the West [the Missouri], the other 
towards the South [the Mississippi], which we believe runs towards 
Mexico by the tokens which they gave us." 



TWO VOYAGEUES 51 

Their course as far as Sault Ste. Marie was iden- 
tical with that of Nicolet, but from this point, instead 
of turning southward, as did Nicolet, they went 
directly west to Chequamegon Bay, and are thus 
justl}^ entitled to the credit of having discovered 
Lake Superior. Their Huron companions, who had 
accompanied them all the way from the lower St. 
Lawrence, now left them in order to visit their kins- 
men in northwestern Wisconsin, some miles inland. 

The Frenchmen set about making themselves com- 
fortable and safe. To this end they began building 
a small fort, the first structure erected by white men 
on the shores of Lake Superior. In Radisson's jour- 
nal we read : 

^^We went about to make a fort of stakes, which 
was in this manner. Suppose that the watter side 
had ben in one end; att the same end there should 
be murtherers, and att need we made a bastion in a 
triangle to defend us from an assault. The doore 
was neare the watter side, our fire was in the midle, 
and our bed on the right hand covered. There were 
boughs of trees all about our fort layed acrosse, one 
uppon an other. Besides these boughs, we had a 
long cord tyed with some bells, wch weare senteryes. 
Finally, we made an end of that fort in 2 days' 
time. ' ' 

The ^'wild men," as he called the Indians, came, 
but they proved to be friendly Hurons, who took the 
two adventurers witli them to their village, "five 



52 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



distant. The white men 
which Eadisson describes 



greate dayes journeys" 
joined the winter's hunt 
somewhat minutely : 

' ^ We heated downe the woods dayly for to discover 
novelties. We killed severall other beasts, as Orini- 
acks [moose], staggs, wild cows, Cariboucks, fallow 
does and bucks, Catts, mountains, child of the 
Devill; in a word, we lead a good life. The snow 




HURON BIRCH-BARK HOUSE 

increases daily. There we make racketts, not to 
play ball, but to exercise ourselves in a game harder 
and more necessary. They are broad, made like 
racketts, that they may goe in the snow and not sinke 
when they runne after the eland, or other beast. ' ' 

The snow increased indeed in great quantities and 
was so light that it would not bear the weight of the 
snowshoes. Their store of meat, in spite of the hunt. 



TWO VOYAGEUES 53 

was soon exhausted, and the usual winter famine re- 
sulted. Eadisson writes of this time of suffering 
with much feeling : 

^'The first 2 weeks we did eate our doggs. As we 
went back upon our stepps for to gett anything to 
fill our bellyes, we were glad to gett the boans and 
carcasses of the beasts that we killed. And happy 
was he that could get what the other did throw away 
after it had been boiled 3 or f oure times to get the 
substance out of it. * * * Finally we became 
the very Image of Death. Here are above 500 dead. 
It's time to come out of such miseryes.'' 

Wlien hope seemed at an end, for they had nothing 
but bark of trees and ground bones to keep body and 
soul together, the snow hardened, and they were able 
to secure a few animals, thus saving themselves from 
complete starvation. 

Later, the Frenchmen wandered into the Sioux 
country between the St. Croix and the Mississippi 
rivers. They returned to Chequamegon Bay some 
time in the early spring of 1660, wjience Radisson 
states that they went to the Bay of the North 
(Hudson Bay). But again he seems to have drawn 
on his imagination, probably relating as facts found 
out by himself the reports of the Indians. It would 
have been impossible for them to take this long jour- 
ney overland and arrive as they did in Montreal in 
August, 1660. 

They were laden with above three hundred robes of 



54 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

castor (beaver) which they had obtained from the 
Indians in exchange for kettles, hatchets, knives, gar- 
ters, awls, needles, tin looking-glasses, little bells, 
combs, vermilion, necklaces and bracelets. 

It will be remembered that their voyage was not 
favored by the governor of New France. He there- 
fore resorted to the punishment popular with those 
in authority at that time, and quietly confiscated the 
larger portion of their furs, thus robbing them of the 
well-earned reward of splendid toil and incurring the 
anger of the voyageurs. 

This seemingly trivial circumstance had far-reach- 
ing results, for it cost the French the Hudson Bay 
country and its rich fur-trade. Grosseilliers went to 
Paris that fall to obtain justice. Disappointed in 
this hope, he returned to the New World, but not to 
continue in the service of France. He and Radisson 
now entered into an agreement with some Boston 
merchants to undertake a voyage to Hudson Bay 
in quest of the furs of that region, but the merchants 
failed to furnish the promised ships. 

Later, in 1664, we find the two hardy adventurers 
on their way to England to interest the king of that 
country in the Hudson Bay project. This brings 
us to the time of the writing of Radisson 's journal, 
from which we obtain our information of their con- 
nection with AVisconsin history. Though unreliable 
in parts, on the whole it is authoritative, besides be- 
ing* very interesting. 



TWO VOYAGEUES 55 

Their subsequent experiences, now in the interest 
of England, again in that of France, their allegiance 
readily bestowed on the highest bidder, does not con- 
cern Wisconsin history, but it is interesting to note 
that the great Hudson Bay Company, which for two 
centuries controlled half the continent by its 
monopoly of the fur-trade, was the direct outcome of 
Eadisson's efforts with Charles II, the company 
being granted a monopoly by a charter given by 
that king in 1670. 

Grosseilliers died in New France in 1698, showing 
that he must have been forgiven and have returned 
to the service of his mother country. But Eadisson, 
the more daring and enterprising of the two, had 
done much more harm to France. He died in Eng- 
land in 1710, still regarded as the foe of his native 
land. 



CHAPTER IV 

WISCONSIN'S FIEST SOLDIEE OF THE CKOSS— 1660-1661 

Picture an old man, silvered, aged and bent by hard- 
ships and privations, not by years (for barely fifty- 
five winters had passed over his head), tottering 
nnder the weight of heavy packs through swamps 
and forests. This is Rene Menard, Jesuit priest and 
missionary, Wisconsin's pioneer Soldier of the 
Cross. 

A Parisian by birth, when barely nineteen years 
of age he began his novitiate for the priesthood in 
the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits. As 
student and teacher he spent the next sixteen years, 
having distinguished himself in philosophy, theology 
and literature. 

As soon as he became a full priest, he was ordered 
to America (1640) to do missionary work among the 
Indians. To this end he immediately set about learn- 
ing the Algonquin language. The next year, being 
ready for service, he was sent among the Hurons, 
where he continued active missionary work for about 
nine years, or until the Iroquois, their bitter foes, 
entered upon their terrible warfare against these 
Indians which resulted in the total destruction of the 
missions and the flight of the Hurons westward. 

56 



WISCONSIN'S FIRST SOLDIEE OF THE CROSS 57 

Menard then returned to Three Elvers, where he 
remained until 1656. Then, with others, he was sent 
to the Onondagas of New York, an Iroquois nation, 
and later to the Cayugas. These Indians were never 
friendly to the French; hence the post was one of 
great danger. But the greater the danger and suf- 
fering, the greater the glory of winning souls, and 
Menard went joyfully to his new field. His life in 
daily — nay, hourly — peril, the burning and drowning 
of captives before his eyes a common occurrence, the 
zeal of the devoted priest was in nowise abated. He 
saw, but shrank not, still working for the salvation 
of souls through baptism, rejoicing in every sprink- 
ling of the holy water that another soul was saved 
and Grod and the Church thereby glorified. In a joy- 
ful letter to his superior, he asserted that he alone 
had baptized four hundred Indians. But the discov- 
ery of a plot to kill all the missionaries led to their 
leaving in the darkness of night and returning to 
Three Bivers. 

Menard's missionary zeal had not yet abated, but 
now it was to be put to the severest test of all. He 
was told that he was to go to the Indians of Lake 
Superior, friendly Hurons who had fled for safety 
from the cruel Iroquois to the forests of northern 
Wisconsin. We read of this in a letter written from 
Quebec to the pope in the fall of 1660 : 

''This summer a priest of the Society of Jesus left 
for a mission more than five hundred leagues from 



58 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

Quebec. Seven Frenchmen joined this apostle : they 
to buy castors, he to conquer souls. He will surely 
have to sutler a great deal, and has everything to 
fear from cold, hunger, disease and the savages. 
But the love of Jesus Christ and the zeal for souls 
conquer all.'' 

That he himself realized the danger of his under- 
taking and its probably fatal outcome we know, for 
he wrote to a friend just before he left Three Rivers : 

''I write to you probably the last word, and I 
desire it to be the seal of our friendship until eter- 
nity. In three or four months you may put me in the 
memento of the dead, considering the manner of 
living of these people and my age and weak constitu- 
tion. * * * ^e were taken a little by surprise, 
so that we were unable to provide ourselves with 
clothing and other necessary things. But he who 
feeds the little birds and clothes the lilies of the 
valley will take care of his servants. Should we 
happen to die of misery that would be for us a great 
happiness." 

Wlien Menard speaks of their being taken by sur- 
prise, he refers to the fact that a large number of 
Ottawas who were at the French settlements were 
anxious to return to the upper country. Their haste 
gave Menard little time to prepare for the long 
journey if he would go in their compan}^ 

He did well to anticipate hardships — cold, hunger, 
peril — but these were not the worst that befell him. 



WISCONSIN'S FIRST SOLDIER OF THE CROSS 



59 



He could not have anticipated that the Indians would 
treat him as cruelly as they did. Old and infirm as 
he was, they made him carry heavy packs and would 
not allow him to cease paddling, even though his 
feeble strokes could 
do little service in 
speeding them on 
their way. 

Their route was by 
the Sault Ste. Marie 
to the Lake Superior 
region. Just after 
reaching the lake, 
Menard and three 
Indians were aban- 
doned by the com- 
pany, and then they 
did indeed suffer. 
They had nothing to 
eat except what they 
scraped up around an 
abandoned lodge and 
some ground bones. Some passing Indians threw 
them a few slices of meat, and these they ravenously 
devoured. Finally some Indians, kinder than the 
others, took pity on them and guided them to Ke- 
weenaw Point, a gathering-place of the Ottawas. 

They reached here October 15, 1660. Menard 
spent the winter among these Ottawas, of whom Ea- 




MENARD'S ROUTE 
(See page 61) 



60 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

disson speaks as "the coursedest, nnablest, the most 
imfamous and cowardliest people that I have seene 
amongst fower score nations that I have fre- 
quented.'' 

They treated hmi cruelly, mocked at his teachings, 
and at last drove him out into the winter's cold. He 
made for himself a wretched shelter of pine boughs. 
Yet seated therein, this wonderful old man could 
write : 

"I can truly say that I have more contentment 
here in one day than I have enjoyed in all my life in 
whatsoever part of the world I have been." 

We may believe that his contentment came from 
within, in the feeling that he was giving his life for 
his God and his Church, for he could make but few 
converts among such a people. He did manage to 
baptize stealthily many infants, and converted about 
fifty adults, the first mission work done in Wisconsin. 

This meager result of the winter's work made him 
resolve to go to a village of the Hurons about two 
hundred fifty miles inland, for many of these Hurons 
had been baptized in the Christian faith before they 
fled from the pursuing Iroquois. It was to seek these 
lost sheep that he had come to Wisconsin's wilds. 

Undeterred by the terrible reports of hardships 
and dangers brouglit him by the three young French- 
men whom he had sent ahead to reconnoiter. Father 
Menard set out for the head waters of the Black 
Elver, the site of the village. 



WISCONSIN'S FIRST SOLDIER OF THE ("ROSS 61 

^^Tliis is the most beautiful occasion," writes he, 
*^to show to angels and men that I love my Creator 
more than the life which I have from him, and would 
you wish me to let it escape 1 ' ' 

As near as can be determined, Menard's route was 
southwest by trail from Keweenaw Point to Lac 
Vieux Desert on the boundary line between Michigan 
and AVisconsin, thence down the Wisconsin for many 
miles, then westward by trail to the head waters of 
the Black. He was accompanied by a French com- 
panion and a party of Indians. 

The Jesuit Relation in describing the journey says 
that the Indians abandoned the priest and his com- 
panion near a lake (probably Lac Vieux Desert), 
promising, however, to send them help. The two 
waited fifteen days, then abandoning hope of rescue 
and having found a canoe, started to paddle down 
the Wisconsin. 

Either in crossing the portage from the Wisconsin 
to the Black River or making their way around some 
rapids in the Wisconsin, Menard became separated 
from his companion and was lost. The writer of the 
Jesuit Relation thinks he was murdered by skulking 
savages, and yet pictures in moving words his death 
from exposure and starvation : 

^^ Behold the priest left, abandoned; but in the 
hands of Divine Providence. God, no doubt, gave 
him the courage to suffer with constancy, in that 
extremity, the deprivation of all human succor when 



Q2 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

tormented by the stings of mosquitoes, which are 
exceedingly numerous in these parts, and so intoler- 
able that the three Frenchmen who had made the 
voyage declare that there was no other way of pro- 
tecting themselves from their bites than to run inces- 
santly, that it was even necessary that two of them 
should chase away those little beasts whilst the third 
was taking a drink. Thus, the poor Father stretched 
out on the ground or on some rock, remained exposed 
to their stings and endured their cruel torment as 
long as life held out. Hunger and other miseries 
completed his sufferings and caused this happy soul 
to leave its body, in order to go and enjoy the fruit 
of so many hardships endured for the conversion 
of savages.'' 

The supposition that the priest was murdered, and 
thus died the more merciful because quicker death, is 
supported by some circumstantial evidence, for his 
cassock and kettle were later found in the lodge of 
a Sioux. 

The good father had his wish — ' ' should we happen 
to die of misery, that would be for us a great happi- 
ness'' — for he gave his life for his faith. Lying un- 
buried in the wilderness, his body perished, but his 
spirit animated other devoted souls to follow in his 
footsteps, and in the years that followed we see these 
wandering black gowns in the forest, on the streams, 
everywhere that the Red Man wandered, oblivious of 
physical discomfort and danger, willing to endure 



WISCONSIN'S FIRST SOLDIER OF THE CROSS 63 

all, even death, in order to win souls to their faith. 
Bancroft says, "Not a cape was turned, not a river 
entered in the new world, but a Jesuit led the way. ' ' 
This may seem to ignore the great pioneer work done 
by the voyageurs and coureurs de bois, their contem- 
porary wanderers, but it hardly overestimates the 
importance of these zealous men in Wisconsin's 
history. 

As Parkman says : ' ' These men aimed at the con- 
version of a continent. They were strong in a 
discipline that controlled not alone the body and the 
will, but the intellect, the heart, the soul, and the 
inmost consciousness. The lives of these early 
Canadian Jesuits attest the earnestness of their faith 
and the intensity of their zeal; but it was a zeal 
bridled, curbed and ruled by a guiding hand. Their 
marvelous training in equal measure kindled en- 
thusiasm and controlled it, roused into action a 
mighty power, and made it as subservient as those 
great material forces which modern science has 
learned to govern. . . One great aim engrossed 
their lives. "For the greater glory of God," they 
would act or wait, dare, suffer or die, yet all in 
unquestioning subjection to the authority of the 
Superiors, in whom they recognized the agents of 
Divine authoritv itself. ' ' 



CHAPTER V 

CLAUDE ALLOLTEZ, FATHEE OF WISCONSIN MISSIONS— 

1665-1676 

A SUCCESSOR to Rene Menard was not long wanting. 
Such was the zeal of the Jesuits and their devotion 
to Mother Church that no sooner did one fall by the 
wayside than another took up the burden and pressed 
bravely on. 

Three years before Menard died a martyr to his 
faith — that is, in 1658' — there had come to Quebec a 
Jesuit priest, Claude Allouez by name, of whom his 
superior in France had written: "He is possessed 
of a vigorous constitution, of a fine mind and disposi- 
tion, of good judgment and great prudence. He is 
firm in purpose, proficient in literature and theology, 
and eminently fitted for missionaiy work." 

That he would need a vigorous constitution, fine 
mind and disposition, good judgment, great pru- 
dence, and firmness in purpose should he undertake 
the work begun by the holy Menard, there is no ques- 
tion, although the value of proficiency in literature 
and theology may be doubted. 

As soon as he landed in Quebec lie began the study 
of the Huron and Algonquin tongues, as Nicolet had 
done before him. It was not until 1665 that he re- 

64 



CLAUDE ALLOUEZ 



65 




PICTURESQUE ROCKS OF WISCONSIN 

Courtesy of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry. 

ceived marching orders. Word then came to him to 
take up the mission work begun by Menard among 
the Ottawas of Lake Superior. Accompanied by 
four hundred Indians who had come from that region 



QQ THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

to trade their furs, he and three other Frenchmen 
left Three Rivers on August 8, 1665. Like the other 
Jesuits of his time, he kept a careful account of his 
journeyings and his work, and it is from this we 
learn the particulars of his voyage. His presence 
was unwelcome to the Indians, so much so that he 
writes : 

' ' The devil formed all opposition imaginable to our 
voyage. One of their leading men declared to me 
his will and that of his j)eoj)le, in arrogant terms 
and with threats of abandoning me on some desolate 
island if I dared follow them any further. ' ' 

Wliat Menard suffered, Allouez suffered, being 
compelled to carry heavy packs and to paddle all 
day long, and being given improper food or no food 
at all. Truly, his vigorous constitution and firmness 
in purpose were needed to prevent his sinking under 
the strain. The savages resorted to many devices to 
make him turn back, even going so far as to steal his 
clothes. As he says: ''I had great trouble to keep 
my hat, the rim of which appeared to them very good 
to protect themselves from the excessive heat of the 
sun. At night my pilot took a blanket that I had 
and used it for a pillow." 

We can imagine that he was glad indeed when they 
reached Chequamegon Bay, at the head of which was 
a large Indian village of seven different nations. 
Here, on the mainland, probably between the pres- 
ent sites of Ashland and Washburn, was built a rude 



CLAUDE ALLOUEZ 67 

chapel of bark, the first house of Christian worship 
in Wisconsin. It was not far from the site of the 
fort built by Eadisson a few years before. 

From the long, narrow, sandy point of land which 
here extends into Lake Superior some four miles, 
Allouez named his mission La Pointe du Saint Esprit 
(Point of the Holy Spirit). 

Burning with zeal, the good father set to work to 
convert the Indians to the Eoman Catholic faith. 
At first, pleased with the novelty, the Indians seemed 
responsive to his teachings. There flocked to his bark 
chapel his immediate neighbors, the Ottawas and 
Chippewas, and from afar the Pottawattomies of 
Green Bay, the Kickapoos of western Wisconsin, the 
Sacs and Foxes of the Fox River country, the Illinois 
from still farther south, and even the savage Sioux 
of the western plains. But soon the novelty wore 
off, and then Allouez 's lot was indeed a hard one. 
His experiences were but a repetition of Menard's. 

The medicine men, upon whose field he was 
encroaching, especially disliked him, and he returned 
the feeling with interest. He writes of their idol- 
worship with the horror of a true son of the Church. 
As to their followers, he says : 

"For the rest, as these people are dull, they do 
not acknowledge any deity purely spiritual. They 
believe that the sun is a man and the moon is his 
wife ; that snow and ice are also human beings, who 
go away in spring and come back in winter; that 



gg THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

the devil dwells in snakes, dragons and other mon- 
sters; that crows, hawks and some other birds are 
manitos (spirits) and talk as well as we do, pretend- 
ing there are some Indians who understand their 
language just as some of them understand a little 
French.'' 

On the whole, his mission among these savages 
was not a success. He withstood four years of dis- 
couragement and ill-treatment, during which time 
he baptized some five hundred souls, mostly children. 
During these four years, he journeyed to the head 
of the lake, probably to where Duluth now stands, 
and also to the northern shores of Lake Superior, 
the latter voyage being made in a birch-bark canoe 
with two Indians as guides. He also made a return 
journey to Quebec in 1667, to ask for help in his 
mission. He remained but two days, taking with 
him on his return two more Jesuits as assistants. 

But still the mission did not prosper. His troubles 
with the medicine men reached a climax. He threat- 
ened them with the fires of hell, and one of them 
retaliated with weird incantations which were 
intended to bring about the death of the priest. 
Three hours of the ceremonies tired out the medicine 
man, but the Black Gown was still in good health. 
His enemies then attacked the chapel, tearing away 
the walls and stealing his personal propertj^. 

Allouez probably was not greatly grieved to 
receive orders from his superior to pass on to an- 



CLAUDE ALLOUEZ 69 

other field. James Marquette, of whom we shall 
learn more later, was appointed to succeed hhn. 

The Pottawattomies, of Green Bay, attracted both 
by the mission and the trading-post (for La Pointe 
was both), had been among the visitors received by 
Allouez. They begged the priest to return with 
them and deal with some young Frenchmen who 
were molesting them. Yielding to their entreaties, 
he left La Pointe with them in November, 1669. 

The time of year was unfavorable for this journey. 
Floating ice, severe storms, danger of shipwreck, 
and hunger were the portion of the travelers, but, 
despite all hardships, they reached Green Bay, 
December 2, the eve of the feast of St. Francis 
Xavier. Allouez, therefore, named the mission he 
established St. Francis Xavier.^ 

Allouez reached the Green Bay region in a time 
of famine. This want of food was due, as he 
expressly states, to the shiftlessness of the Indians, 
and not to the barrenness of the land. There was 
abundance of game and fish, had they but had the 
industry to secure and preserve it, and the soil was 
so fertile that even their poor farming could not 
prevent the land from yielding good harvests. But 

1 Two years later this was removed to the east side of the Fox River, 
at the first rapids, where the present city of Depere stands. In 1673 a 
fine church was built here. At the beginning of the last century, some 
workmen accidentally unearthed a silver soliel which Nicholas Perrot had 
presented to this church. It was buried in t6S7 when the mission was 
burned, there to remain until chance brought it to light in 1802. It is 
now in the possession of the State Historical Society at Madison. 



'0 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



the Indian made no provision for the future. Allouez 

writes of them: 

"These savages are without industry. They know 

not how to make even a bark dish, but use shells 

instead; they are un- 
commonly barbarous, 
and, having" only what 
they absolutely need, 
they show great avarice 
in disposing of their 
little wares." 

The St. Francis 
Xavier Mission was the 
center of spiritual work 
among the neighboring 
tribes — the Pottawat- 
tomies, Winnebagoes, 
Sacs, Foxes and Me- 
nominees. In 1670, 
Father Allouez founded 
a mission among the 
Foxes on the Wolf 
Kiver, a branch of the 

Fox. This mission he named St. Mark. 
He then retraced his steps and again entered the 

Fox River. This he ascended until he reached a 

trail leading across a prairie to a village of the Mas- 

eoutens, the Fire Nation, probably near the present 




SOLEIL PRESENTED TO THE 

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER 

MISSION BY TERROT 



CLAUDE ALLOUEZ 71 

site of Berlin. He received a friendly welcome from 
these Indians, who prayed to him as a manito. He 
preached to them, telling them of the one and only 
true God. Here he established the mission of St. 
James. The Mascoutens seemed to be very familiar 
with a river which they said flowed south to the 
great sea, and which doubtless was the Mississippi. 
They talked much to Allouez about it, but he went 
no farther westward. He was a saver of souls, and 
not an explorer. 

His next journey was to the Menominees at the 
mouth of the river now known by their name. The 
mission of St. Michael was the fruit of his labor here. 
This was late in May, 1670. Instead of returning to 
the Green Bay mission, he went to Sault Ste. Marie, 
where he remained until September of the following 
year. 

Father Dablon, who had been laboring in the Lake 
Superior country, accompanied him to Green Bay. 
During this time, he, with other priests, had made 
surveys for a map of the Superior region. While 
doing so, he reported that they found copper in 
great abundance on Isle Minong (Isle Royale), but 
he complained that the Indians were so reluctant to 
give information about the copper that he had not yet 
found the source of the metal. He said the Indians 
told him the copper had first been found by 
four hunters on a certain island near the north 
shore of the lake. Wishing to boil their food, the 



72 THE- MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

hunters picked up a few stones on the shore, heated 
them red hot and threw them into a bark vessel which 
they had filled with water, but to their surprise they 
found the '^stones" to be pure copper. 

Their meal over, they hurried away because of the 
lynxes and the hares, which were as large as dogs 
on this island, and which they feared might eat their 
provisions. 

They took away with them some of these ' ' stones. ' ' 
Scarcely had they pulled away from the shore, when 
they heard a deep voice, like thunder, crying, "Wlio 
are these thieves who steal the toys of my children?'' 
It was the God of the Waters, or some other mighty 
spirit. The four hunters rowed away in great ter- 
ror ; three of them soon died, but the fourth reached 
home and told the story. It was said that the island 
had no foundation, but floated with the wind, and 
no Indian dared land on its shores. 

Together Father Allouez and Father Dablon 
visited the St. James mission among the Mascoutens. 
The Indians told the priests still more of the great 
river, which "flows toward the south until it dis- 
charges itself into the sea, some of them even assert- 
ing that they themselves had followed the river to 
the sea, and there had seen white men like the French 
who hewed trees with large knives and had houses 
on the water." 

This information appears not to have impressed 
the good fathers sufficiently to induce them to set 



CLAUDE ALLOUEZ 



73 



out to see for themselves, for they turned back to 
Green Bay. 

Father Dablon did not long remain with the Green 
Bay mission, his place being filled by Father Andre. 



'^^ 




THE DEPEKE MONUMENT TO ALLOUEZ 
Near the Site of St. Francis Xavier ;Mission 



This priest and Father Allouez built the substantial 
church spoken of on page 69. 

In 1676, Father Allouez, obeying an order from 
his superior in Quebec, set out to work among the 
Illinois, and Wisconsin knew him no more. He died 
among the Illinois in August, 1689, having devoted 
his life for nearly a (quarter of a century to unselfish 
labors among savage peoples. 



74 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

The Depere mission became tlie center of the trad- 
ing and spiritual life of Wisconsin. It was sur- 
round by palisades within which were cabins, 
workshops and storehouses. 

Father Andre, who was left in charge when 
Allouez left, had won his way to the hearts of the 
savage children by his flute-playing. He thus taught 
them the canticles of the Church, and then marched 
them through the villages, preaching through song 
to their parents. 

Because these songs pleased the savages, the good 
father had an inspiration, *Ho combat their super- 
stition and idolatry by these innocent souls." The 
Relation of 1671-2 says : 

n* * * jjg composed canticles against the super- 
stitions of which we have spoken, and against the 
voices most opposed to Christianity, and, having 
taught them to the children by the sound of a soft 
flute, he went everywhere with his little savage musi- 
cians, declaring war against the jugglers [medicine 
men], the dreamers, and those who had many wives ; 
and because the savages passionately loved their 
children, and suffered everything from them, they 
allowed the reproaches, although biting, which were 
made to them by these songs, inasmuch as they pro- 
ceeded from the mouths of their children. It hap- 
pened sometimes that as the father was obliged in 
the heat of dispute to refute the errors of these 
superstitious people, and to convince the old men 



CLAUDE ALLOUEZ 



75 



of the falsity and silliness of their idolatry, it hap- 
pened, I say, that this troop of children tired of 
hearing snch disputes, threw themselves among them 
and, sounding their canticles, obliged their parents 
to be silent. This gave the father much joy, who 
saw that God made use of these innocent mouths to 
confound the impiety of their own parents/^ 




CHAPTER VI 

PEEROT, PETNCE OF FOREST EANGEES— 1665-1699 

Heeetofore in our narrative we have given promi- 
nence to the Black Gowns, as the Indians called the 
Jesuit priests, and justly have we done so, for their 
efforts are indeed worthy of note. But our picture 
of early days in Wisconsin would be untrue to life 
did it not show the famous coureurs de bois ( rangers 
of the wood) well in the foreground, sometimes pre- 
ceding, sometimes accompanying these priests 
through the pathless forest. 

As to which class, la^Tiian or churchman, belongs 
the greater credit for pioneer work, we cannot deter- 
mine. One historian seems to give the palm to the 
latter; others claim that the priest simply followed 
the path blazed by the forest ranger. It is not neces- 
sary for us to take part in the dispute; rather let 
us yield due honor to both, for they were practically 
contemporaries. 

When Radisson and Grosseilliers, forerunners of 
the coureurs de bois, returned to Montreal in 1660, 
three hundred Indians accompanied them in canoes 
laden with furs. The sight of such riches to be had 
for a mere song roused the young Frenchmen there 
to the highest pitch of excitement. For the most 

76 




r, i 

A COUREUR DE BOIS 



77 

part unfettered 
by ties of home 
and family, guid- 
ed by naught but 
love of adven- 
ture, desire for 
wealth, or a wild 
fancy for the un- 
tried and un- 
usual, these 
youths — one by 
one or in compa- 
nies, sometimes 
with a Jesuit 
father and In- 
dian guides, 
sometimes with- 
o u t — t u r n e d 
their canoes 
westward. 

Wliat wonder 
that they rarely 
returned to civil- 
ization except 
for brief peri- 
ods! The forest 
life was free 
from restraint, 
thetrade in skins 



78 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

profitable, and the Indians as a rule friendly, for the 
Frenchman, nnlike the Englishman, readily adopted 
the manners, dress and customs of his red-skinned 
companions. 

''Painted and tattooed, with feathered hat and 
beaded garments, he daily danced with the braves 
or gravely smoked the calumet at the council of the 
tribe.'' 

The young Frenchman often allied himself still 
more closely with savage life by taking to himself 
for a wife a copper-colored maiden, sometimes one 
in each village he visited. No sense of morality 
restrained him, for, considering himself outside the 
pale of civilization, he was bound only by the law 
of selfish desire. 

His brief returns to the settlements were marked 
by great joviality and gayety. Surrounded by com- 
panions, rangers like himself, he drank and gambled 
and danced and sang the hours away as long as 
his money lasted, when he sought absolution for his 
sins from the village priest and at once resumed 
his life among the children of the forest, until his 
purse was again filled. 

Picturesque, daring, adventurous, hardy and 
shrewd, he was often of the greatest service to New 
France in dealing with the Indians, keeping them at 
peace with one another, so that the fur-trade might 
not be molested, and friendly to the French, so that 
the encroachments of the English on that trade, 



PERROT 79 

already felt in the Hudson Bay country, might be 
more successfully resisted in the lake region. 

In spite of their service to the government, the 
king and the governors were rarely friendly to these 
adventurers, for the life of the woods attracted to 
it the finest young men in the colony, thus retarding 
its growth. But they did not dare to be too severe in 
imposing restraints, lest the ranger, who was a law 
unto himself, be drawn over to the service of the 
English, as were Eadisson and Grosseilliers. 

The prince of these forest rangers was Nicholas 
Per rot. The year that Father Allouez began his 
great mission work in Wisconsin, 1665, finds this 
youth — for he was barely twenty-one years of age — 
taking service as a sort of volunteer helper to the 
missionaries, one of his duties being to provide 
necessities. In that year we find him among the 
Pottawattomies of Green Bay, who received him 
gladly. It was of some of the young Frenchmen with 
him that these Indians complained to Allouez. 

Perrot tarried here for a time, then went on an 
errand of peace to the Menominees, who were threat- 
ening war against the Pottawattomies. On his return 
after pacifying the Menominees, the Pottawattomies 
tried to persuade him to remain among them, but he 
refused, knowing that they were actuated simply by 
the desire to keep control of the fur-trade with the 
French. 

Before long he left them in order to visit the Foxes 



80 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

on the Wolf River, but, disliking their attitude 
toward him, he soon pushed on to the Mascoutens. 
These the Pottawattomies had attempted to influence 
against him. Perrot happened to overhear their 
agents telling lies about him and the French, and 
he managed to outwit them and conclude the treaty. 

For four years more Perrot remained among the 
Indians of eastern Wisconsin, and then returned to 
Montreal, in 1670. In the fall of that same year he 
was selected by the governor for the difficult task 
of bringing representatives of all the western tribes 
together at Sault Ste. Marie for the ceremony of 
announcing French sovereignty over their domains. 

He succeeded in inducing fourteen tribes from 
Wisconsin and the Hudson Bay region to send dele- 
gates for this purpose. The Foxes went as far as 
Green Bay, then turned back. The Mascoutens and 
Kickapoos declined to respond to his persuasions. 

De Lusson had been named as commander of the 
new country. The ceremony of taking possession 
was one well calculated to impress the simj^le sav- 
ages. In a hole dug in the ground was placed the 
base of a large wooden cross. Surrounding it were 
the magnificently dressed commander, his soldiers 
(among whom was Louis Jolliet) and the black- 
gowned priests headed by Father Allouez of Depere. 
With heads bared, the Frenchmen chanted a hymn. 
xVt its close, while a tablet of lead engraved with the 
royal arms of France was nailed to a cedar post near 



PEEROT 81 

the cross, de Lusson lifted a sod, bared his sword, 
and proclaimed Louis XIV the Magnificent ruler 
over the country of the Great Lakes. 

When the shouting that followed this was over. 
Father Allouez addressed the Indians in the 
Algonquin tongue as follows : 

"It is a good work, my brothers, an important 
work, a great work, that brings us together in council 
to-day. Look up at the cross which rises so high 
above your heads. It was there that Jesus Christ, 
the Son of God, after making himself a man for 
the love of men, was nailed and died, to satisfy his 
Eternal Father for our sins. He is the master of 
our lives; the ruler of Heaven, Earth, and Hell. 
It is he of whom I am continually speaking to you, 
and whose name and word I have borne through all 
your country. 

' ' But look at this post to which are fixed the arms 
of the great chief of France, whom we call King. 
He lives across the sea. He is the chief of the great- 
est chiefs, and has no equal on earth. All the chiefs 
whom you have ever seen are but children beside 
him. He is like a great tree, and they are but the 
little herbs that one walks over and tramples under 
foot. 

'^You know Onontio,^ that famous chief at Quebec; 
you know and you have seen that he is the terror of 
the Iroquois, and that his very name makes them 

1 Indian name for the Governor of Canada. 



82 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

tremble, since lie has laid their country waste and 
burned their towns with fire. Across the sea there 
are ten thousand Onontios like him, who are but the 
warriors of our great King, of whom I have told you. 
'''V\^ien our King attacks his enemies, he is more 
terrible than the thunder; the earth trembles; the 
air and the sea are all on fire with the blaze of his 
cannon ; he is seen in the midst of his warriors, cov- 
ered over with the blood of his enemies, whom he 
kills in such numbers that he does not reckon them 
by the scalps, but by the streams of blood which he 
causes to flow. He takes so many prisoners that 
he holds them in no account, but lets them go where 

they will, to show that he is not afraid of them. 

* * * 

''But what shall I sa}^ of his riches? You think 
yourselves rich when you have ten or twelve sacks 
of corn, a few hatchets, beads, kettles, and other 
things of that sort. He has cities of his own, more 
than there are of men in all this country for five hun- 
dred leagues around. In each city there are store- 
houses where there are hatchets enough to cut down 
all your forests; kettles enough to cook all youi" 
moose, and beads enough to fill all your lodges. 

"His house is longer than from here to the top 
of the Sault — that is to say, more than half a league 
— and higher than your tallest trees; and it holds 
more families than the largest of your towns." 

This was not the end of the good father ^s lengthy 



PEEROT 83 

liarangue, but we have given enough to show that 
the glory, power and magnificence of Louis XIV 
received able treatment at his hands. 

The ceremony concluded, the French left. The 
Indians celebrated their departure by stealing the 
royal arms. 

PeiTot now returned to the St. Lawrence and 
married, but, even so, he did not long remain in the 
settlements. He obtained from Frontenac, who in 
lieu of Perrot's recent services did not dare to 
refuse, a license to trade with the Indians of the 
Great Lakes. But this was not free from restric- 
tions. Perrot was permitted to take but one canoe 
of goods and to bring back all he could, by shrewd- 
ness or otherwise, persuade the savages to give in 
return. The ranger probably made several such 
trading-triiDs to the West during the next few years. 

In 1683, we learn from his Memoir e, he was 
ordered to proceed to the West and secure the 
Indians as allies of the French in a war they were 
planning against the Iroquois. Others had been sent 
on the same mission, but had failed. Perrot was so 
successful that he induced ^\e hundred of the Red 
Men to go with him to Niagara, only to learn, much 
to their disgust and his, that de la Bar re, now 
governor of New France, had made a treaty of peace 
with the Iroquois. There was nothing for them to 
do but to return with their war lust ungratified. 

In 1685, Perrot seems to have met with some 



84 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

return for the services he had rendered the govern- 
ment, for he was made commander of Green Bay 
and its dependencies, wliich now also included the 
upper Mississippi country/ 

He at once went to Green Bay, then to the Missis- 
sippi, pitching his camp near the present village of 





idtt 



SUPrOSED SITE OF PEKKOTS WINTER QUARTERS, 1685-G 

Trempealeau. Here he built a few rude cabins and 
passed the winter of 1685-6. There were discovered 
here, in 1888, a large hearth and fireplace made of 
flagstones cemented with a clay mortar which 
undoubtedly were used by Perrot. 

In the spring, tlie ranger ascended the river to 

^ The Mississippi liad been discovei-ed and partially explored in 1G73 
by Jolliet and Marcpiettc See next chapter. 



PEEROT 85 

Lake Pepin and built a barricaded post on the Wis- 
consin bank, which he named Fort St. Antoine. 
About the same period, or perhaps a little earlier, he 
built a similar post just a little north of the junction 
of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers, near the 
present city of Prairie du Chien. This he called 
Fort St. Francis, not forgetting the saints of his 
Church, layman though he was. 

Orders now came to Perrot again to rally the 
Indians for an expedition against the Iroquois^ not 
an easy task, considering what had happened before, 
but he succeeded in mustering a fairly large com- 
pany of savages, who accompanied him to Mackinac 
and thence to Niagara. They then proceeded against 
the Senecas, an Iroquois tribe. 

While the ranger was thus engaged, a number of 
Foxes, Mascoutens and Kickapoos, who, it will be 
remembered, had not joined in the ceremonies at 
Sault Ste. Marie, attacked the French at Green Bay, 
burning the mission house and the warehouses where 
Perrot had stored furs to await the cessation of the 
Iroquois troubles. As Perrot was not a rich man, 
the loss was a great blow to him. 

It was at this time that the priests buried the silver 
soleil, his gift, spoken of previously. 

In 1689, we find the bold ranger again at Fort St. 
Antoine on the Mississippi, engaged in a repetition 
of the ceremony which had taken place at Sault Ste. 
Marie in 1671. With as much pomp as he could 



86 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

display, lie took possession of all the surrounding 
country in the name of the King of France. 

The next year he was given a piece of lead ore by 
the Miamis, an Illinois tribe, which gift resulted in 
his discovery of the lead mines of southwestern 
Wisconsin and northern Illinois, since the source of 
so much wealth. Near these lead deposits he built 
another barricaded post. 

In 1692, the scene of Perrot's activities was 
changed to Michigan, for again was his influence 
over the Eed Men needed, this time to counteract 
the efforts of the English, who were arousing the 
Indians to hostilities. This work of pacifying 
hostile Indians occupied him most of the time during 
the next seven years, at the end of which time, in 
1699, the King of France ordered all western posts 
abandoned. Thus ended Nicholas Perrot's career in 
Wisconsin. 

His remaining years were spent on the banks of 
the St. Lawrence, in i^overty and bitterness of heart, 
for the government never allowed his claim for 
services rendered. He died in 1717, at the age of 
seventy-five, broken in spirit by the ingratitude of 
his king and his country. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MYSTERIOUS EIVER FLOWING SOUTHWARD^ 1673 

In bounding out the story of Perrot's life, it was 
necessary to carry our narrative past a very impor- 
tant event in Wisconsin's history. We now turn 
back to record a discovery upon the brink of which 
priest and forest ranger alike stood for forty years, 
partially knowing what lay just before them, but 
yet not making that knowledge certain. 

In 1634-5, Jean Nicolet heard from the Mascoutens 
of the great river that flowed into the sea, but the 
hearing did not move him to seek and find. Twenty 
years later they told the same story to Radisson and 
Grosseilliers, who claimed to have profited by the 
information and to have visited the river, but whose 
claim is probably false. Again, fifteen years later, 
these savages repeated the tale oft told, this time 
to a Black Gown, Father Allouez, and once again 
to him and a brother priest. Father Dablon, a year 
later; but, although the latter wrote of the river 
with an accuracy of detail that is wonderful, con- 
sidering that he never saw it, the two priests were 
busy establishing the spiritual empire of the Roman 
Catholic Church, with no thought of extending the 
earthly empire of the king, and they also turned 

87 



88 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



their backs upon 
the great discov- 
ery. It is not at 
all unlikely that 
these Indians told 
the same tale to the 
bold conreur de 
bois • Nicholas Per- 
rot, for they seem- 
ed never to tire of 
its repetition; but 
if they did tell it, 
it was not effective 
in leading him far- 
ther westward, for 
he personally knew 
nothing of the 
Mississippi until 
in 1685, twelve 
years after its dis- 
covery, he went 
to the banks 
of the stream 
as commander of the country along its border. 
It was reserved for two others, one an explorer, 
Louis Jolliet by name, the other a priest, James 
Marquette, accompanied by five other Frenchmen, to 
make the great discovery. To the first-named 
belongs the real credit of the discovery, for he was 




LOUIS JOLLIET 



THE MYSTEEIOUS RIVER 



89 



the leader of the expedition, so commissioned by 
the governor of New France. Had his canoe not 
been overturned and his papers lost just above Mon- 
treal on his return, to him and to him alone would 
have been given the praise which was his due. As 
it happened, Marquette's account of the voyage was 
saved and published, and thus to him has come all 
the glory of the enterprise. 

JoUiet was a real son of New France, for he spent 
but a short year of his life in the mother country. 
For a time he tried to 
be a Jesuit, but the life 
of a priest was not to 
his liking. He soon 
abandoned it and de- 
cided to become an 
explorer. To that end 
he began to study 
woodcraft and Indian 
dialects, both of which 
he quickly mastered. 

In 1669, he led a 
party of Frenchmen in 
a search for the copper 
mines of Lake Supe- 
rior and a shorter 
route from Montreal 
to the lake region. He 
seems not to have been father marquette 




90 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

successful in his effort to find the mines, but he took 
a new route back, going past Detroit to Lake Erie, 
then to Lake Ontario and home. 

Near the head of Lake Ontario, he met La Salle, 
who was already searching for the ^' great river 
flowing southward." Jolliet advised him to go by 
way of Lakes Huron and ]\Iicliigan and the Fox 
Eiver, but he would not. He obstinately turned 
south, thus missing the river he sought, although 
finding one of its great tributaries, the Ohio. 

During the next three years, Jolliet made many 
journeys to the region of the upper lakes, one of 
them in company with de Lusson when the latter 
took possession of the country for the king. 

In the early winter of 1672, Count Frontenac, 
Governor of New France, in response to the 
expressed desire of his king, devised a plan for 
the discovery of the river so often spoken of by 
priest, forest ranger and Indian, and also of the 
South Sea into which it was thought the river might 
empty. To head this enterprise he chose Louis Jol- 
liet, a man well fitted for the task by natural 
qualifications and training. 

In December, Jolliet started out, carrying with 
him instructions from Father Dablon, superior of 
the Great Lakes missions, to James Marquette, priest 
at the St. Ignace Mission at Mackinac, to join the 
expedition. 

We have heard of this priest before. He was the 



THE MYSTEEIOUS RIVEE 91 

one who took charge of La Pointe Mission at 
Chequamegon Bay when Allonez left for Green Bay, 
1669. Marqnette labored here not much more suc- 
cessfnlly than had his predecessors, Menard and 
Allonez, so far as saving souls was concerned, but 
he added much to his linguistic knowledge, learning 
to speak six dialects within a few years. 

His work was brought to a sudden close by the 
onslaught of the savage Sioux, ''the Iroquois of the 
West," as he called them. Before these dreaded 
savages the Plurons and Ottawa s fled like startled 
deer at the hunter's approach, the latter to their 
old home on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, the 
former to Mackinac. This flight marked the end 
of the Mission of the Holy Spirit, for never again 
was there a mission established there by the Jesuits. 

Marquette accompanied the Hurons to Mackinac, 
and was doing his gentle, pious work among them 
when he received his orders through Jolliet to join 
the party to explore the Mississippi and find the 
South Sea. He was greatly pleased by these orders, 
for he had long desired to go farther west. 

He had already heard much of this river from 
some Illinois Indians visiting Chequamegon Bay. 
He says : 

''AVlien the Illinois come to La Pointe, they pass 
a great river about a league in width. It runs from 
north to south and so far that the Illinois, who know 



92 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

not what a canoe is/ have not heard of its mouth. 
It is hardly credible that this large river empties 
[into the sea] at Virginia; and we rather believe 
that it has its month in California. If the Indians 
who have promised to make me a canoe do not fail 
in their word, we shall travel on this river as far as 
possible." 

This exploration, he also says, he intends to make 
''in order to open the passage to snch of our fathers 
as have been awaiting this good fortune for so long a 
time. ' ' 

The time was now at hand when his dream of 
exploration could be realized, and the priest's joy 
was intense. 

The long winter evenings were spent by Marquette 
and Jolliet before the hearth of blazing logs in the 
mission house, planning the voyage. They found 
out all that could be learned from the Indians, made 
a map of their intended route, and prepared sup- 
plies. The latter seem very meager — two birch-bark 
canoes, smoked meat and Indian corn — but the two 
doubtless relied much on the game and fish to be 
obtained along the way. 

On May 17, 1673, they began the journey. 
Their course through the Straits of Michilimackinac 
(Mackinac), along the shores of Lake Michigan and 
the Menominee River, was by this time well known. 
The Menominee Indians, upon learning the destina- 

1 He probably means a larfje canoe. 



THE MYSTEEIOUS EIVEE 93 

tion of the travelers, tried by the recital of all sorts 
of horrible tales to dissuade them from going. 

"They told me," writes Marquette, "that the 
Great River was exceedingly dangerous and full 
of frightful monsters who devoured men and canoes 
together ; and that the heat was so great that it would 
surely cause our death; that there is even a demon 
there, who can be heard from afar, who stops the 
passage and engulfs all who dare approach." 

But the Frenchmen were not to be easily fright- 
ened. Marquette taught the Indians a prFiyer, and 
the party passed on down the familiar route to 
Green Bay, up the Fox River, carrying their canoes 
past its raging raj^ids, across Lake Winnebago and 
again into the Fox, the beauties of whose banks 
Father Dablon had so glowingly described. 

On June 7 they reached the village of the Mas- 
coutens. The Miami s, an Illinois tribe who had fled 
before the Iroquois, dwelt here in friendly relations 
with the Mascoutens, as did also the Kickapoos. 

We can imagine the delight of Marquette to see 
here the cross set up by Allouez three years before, 
and his greater delight to find it decorated with 
bows and arrows, deerskins and red belts — offerings 
which the Indians had made to the Great Manito of 
the French in gratitude for having, as they believed, 
averted a threatened famine. 

Jolliet called together a council of the Indians, 
told them of his plans, and asked for guides, which 



94 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

were now necessary, for the explorers had reached 
the westernmost point thus far visited by the French. 
His request was readily granted, and they set out on 
June 10, accompanied by two Miamis whose style of 
hair-dressing — allowing a long lock to dangle over 
each ear — was much admired by Marquette. 

They followed the tortuous Fox in its winding 
course through the lakes and marshes until they came 
at last to the place where a bend of the Fox is 
separated from a curve in the Wisconsin by only a 
little over a mile of marsh, the narrow divide be- 
tween the two great water systems of the St. 
Lawrence and the Mississippi. Legler well says of 
this : 

"A raindrop falling here may be carried down 
the latter stream [the Wisconsin] into the Missis- 
sippi River, and thence into the Gulf of Mexico ; or, 
perchance, it may flow with the rapid flood of the Fox 
into the volume of the Great Lakes, over the ledge of 
Niagara, down the St. Lawrence, into the ocean of 
the North.'' 

They had reached the portal to the Mississippi 
upon whose threshold Frenchmen had stood for 
two score years. 

The portage across this marsh was familiar to the 
Indians, so that the seven Frenchmen and their 
canoes were soon safely embarked upon the waters 
of the Meskousing, as Marquette calls it, whose cur- 
rent was to bear them — whither? Perhaps to the 



THE MYSTERIOUS RIVER 95 

Gulf of California, perhaps to the South Sea, per- 
haps to the Gulf of Mexico. Time would tell. 
Parkman thus describes their four days' journey 
down this beautiful river: 

''They glided calmly down the tranquil stream, 
by islands choked with trees and matted with en- 
tangling grape-vines ; by forests, groves, and 
prairies, the parks and pleasure-grounds of a prodi- 
gal nature ; by thickets and marshes and broad, bare 
sandbars ; under the shadowing trees, between whose 
tops looked down from afar the bold brow of some 
woody bluff. At night, the bivouac, — the canoes 
inverted on the bank, the flickering fire, the meal of 
bison-flesh or venison, the evening pipes, and slumber 
beneath the stars; and when in the morning they 
embarked again, the mist hung on the river like a 
bridal veil ; then melted before the sun, till the glassy 
water and the languid woods basked breathless in 
the sultry glare. ' ' 

On June 17, 1673, their gleaming paddles shot the 
two canoes into the broad current of the Mississippx. 
Their joy was inexpressible. 

But their journey was not yet ended; worse was 
yet to come, if they were to believe the tales told 
them by the Menominees. They may have been 
startled into a partial belief by "a monstrous fish,' 
which, ' ' says Marquette, ' ' struck so violently against 
our canoe that I took it for a large tree about to 

1 Probably a cat-fish. 



96 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

knock us to pieces," and again when they saw what 
appeared to be "a monster with the head of a tiger, 
a pointed snout like a wild-cat's, a beard and ears 
erect, a grayish head and neck all black. ' " 

The sight of large herds of buffaloes, seen for the 
first time on the Wisconsin, became quite common. 

In spite of all the strange animals encountered, the 
travelers pushed on, paddling steadily but cautiously 
by day and landing at night, after careful recon- 
noitering, to cook their evening meal, then anchoring 
in mid-stream till morning. For nearly two weeks 
they had seen no trace of human beings, when o^e 
day they saw footprints in the western bank and a 
well-beaten path. Jolliet and Marquette resolved to 
follow it. 

After walking about six miles, they came upon an 
Indian village. Attracted by their shouts, four old 
men, holding up peace-pipes, came to meet them. 
These Indians proved to be Illinois. Their reception 
of the strangers was kindly and a feast was prepared 
for the white men. The four courses served were 
Indian meal porridge, fish, roast dog, and buffalo 
meat, all of which but the third proving acceptable 
to the visitors, although fed to ihem bit by bit, as 
though they were birds or babies. After the feast 
the chief assured them that their presence added 
flavor to his tobacco, made the river more calm, the 
sky more serene, and the earth more beautiful. 

2 Probably a tiger-cat. 













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.4i^^g^^^ 


: LM oe. 5 


;a< 






3 

s 

t. 




^1 IliNoij 




I' 

■f 


^/ /^ 






^ 


/ / 










1 

2 

S 
1 

? 


f 




l- 

s 

f 
1 




Jl 


1 


BASSIH D£ LA fLOR/Ot 






J- 


k.. 






FLORlOl 




i.-'ts 



MARQUETTE'S MANUSCRIPT MAP. ACCOMPANYING HIS 
JOURNAL, 1673 



98 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

These new friends also tried to dissuade the 
Frenchmen from journeying farther southward, but 
without result. The voyagers embarked once more, 
Marquette carrying a peace-pipe given him by the 
chief, who told him that it would insure them kindly 
treatment from all Illinois kinsmen to the south. 

Again they were on the mysterious river flowing 
southward, passing now the mouth of the Illinois, 
where they saw the terrible monsters of which the 
Menominees had told, but the monsters were only 
painted ones.^ On a flat high rock were painted two 
of them, in red, black and green, each ''as large as 
a calf, with horns like a deer, red eyes, a beard like 
a tiger, and a frightful expression of countenance. 
The face is something like that of a man, the body 
covered with scales, and the tail so long that it passes 
entirely round the bod}^, over the head and between 
the legs, ending like that of a fish." 

These were sufficiently terrible to frighten the 
superstitious savages, and even to interest the 
Frenchmen to the extent of making them the subject 
of conversation until the attention of the explorers 
was attracted by a torrent of yellow water from the 
west pouring into the blue -Mississippi. "I have 
never seen anything more terrible," writes Mar- 
quette, but still they did not turn back, although 
their canoes were whirled about like straws, and 
were in danger of being overturned by the great 

1 Probably idols. 



THE MYSTERIOUS RTVEE 99 

trees that the inishing current brought down. This 
river we now know as the Missouri. 

They soon passed the mouth of another stream, 
this one entering from the east — the Ohio, or Beauti- 
ful River, as the Iroquois called it. 

As they glided ever southward, they found that 
the pests which made Menard's last hours so full of 
suffering had a broader field of activity than Wis- 
consin's forests, for they were attacked by myriads 
of mosquitoes. 

Suddenly, one day, they saw some Indians on the 
east bank. There was mutual surprise. The dis- 
play of the peace-pipe by Marquette met with kind 
response, and the party landed. It was evident that 
these Indians were in touch with Europeans some- 
where, for they had guns, knives, hatchets, and gun- 
powder in glass bottles. The Indians assured the 
explorers that they would reach the mouth of the 
river in ten days, which, as they were over one 
thousand miles up stream, indicates on the part of 
the Red Men either utter ignorance or a wish to 
deceive. 

Day after day the explorers paddled on, until they 
had traversed some three hundred miles more 
through the solitude of river, marsh and forest, 
when they reached the mouth of the Arkansas, where 
they saw a cluster of wigwams. Their reception was 
warm -but not friendly. In spite of the peace-pipe 
held up by Marquette, the young men of the tribe 

UOfC 



100 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

set out in canoes and even waded ont to attack them, 
a war club thrown by one narrowly missing the. good 
priest's head, when the older men of the tribe, seeing 
the calumet, interfered. 

The Frenchmen spent the night here, in some fear, 
it is true, but morning found them safe. They went 
but a few miles farther down the stream. 

Their reasons for turning northward at this point 
were sound. They had gone far enough to prove 
that the Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico, 
and they feared if they went farther they might be 
killed by the cannibal Indians to the southward or 
by the Spaniards, the story of their discovery 
remaining an untold tale. 

The return journey was begun on July 17. To 
paddle against the current in the burning heat of 
the July and August days was indeed a hard task, 
and it is no wonder that Marquette's health failed. 
The voyagers did not return by the Wisconsin-Fox 
way, but up the Illinois, a shorter route to Lake 
Michigan. They probably reached this lake by way 
of the Des Plaines and Chicago rivers. Following 
the west shore of the lake, they reached Sturgeon 
Bay, made a portage across, and reached the mission 
at De Pere the last of September, after an absence 
of four months and a journey of two thousand five 
hundred miles. 

During the following winter each wrote a .narra- 
tive of their experiences and discoveries, and each 



THE MYSTERIOUS RIVER 101 

made a map of the country visited. xA.s has been 
stated, Jolliet was so unfortunate as to lose his rec- 
ords in the rapids above Montreal. He writes to 
Frontenac thus : 

''I had escaped every peril from the Indians; I 
had passed forty-two rapids, and was on the point 
of disembarking, full of joy at the success of so long 
and difficult an enterprise, when my canoe capsized 
after all the danger seemed over. I lost two men 
and my box of papers within sight of the first French 
settlements, which I ]iad left almost two years before. 
Nothing remains to me but my life and the ardent 
desire to employ it on any service which you may 
please to direct." 

And thus, through accident and not because it is 
his due, has come to Marquette the fame of the dis- 
covery. His statue it is which adorns Statuary Hall 
in the Capitol at Washington as Wisconsin's noted 
citizen. His name it is which is perpetuated in a 
county within our borders, while Jolliet, the daring 
leader and real discoverer, has no memorial in mar- 
ble or in name. Illinois has in a way preserved his 
memory by naming a city for him, although doing 
him no especial honor in locating in that city her 
state prison. 

The story of the after lives of these two explorers 
is soon told. Marquette had promised some Illinois 
in his journey through their country that he would 
return to them. This his health would not permit 



202 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

until October of the following year. Accompanied 
by two Frenchmen, he started to return along the 
western shore of Lake Michigan. Exposures to cold 
and storm brought on his old ailments, and he was 
obliged to spend the winter in a rude cabin not far 
from the present site of Chicago. In the spring he 
was so much better that he succeeded in reaching 
the great Illinois village on the Illinois River. He 
began his missionary work among the tribe, a work 
he had longed to do ever since he' first became ac- 
quainted with a few of them at Chequamegon Bay, 
but it was not to be continued. He became much 
worse, and, realizing that he could not long survive, 
he started back to Mackinac, along the eastern shore 
of Lake Michigan, two servants with him. 

Most of the time he lay in the bottom of the canoe. 
He grew rapidly worse. That he fully realized his 
condition is evidenced by the old narrative : 

"The eve of his death, which was Friday, he told 
them, all radiant with joy, that it would take place 
on the morrow. During the whole day he conversed 
with them about the manner of his burial, the way 
in which he should be laid out, the place to be selected 
for his interment; he told them how to arrange his 
hands, feet and face, and directed them to raise a 
cross over his grave. He even went so far as to 
enjoin them, only three hours before he expired, to 
take his chapel-bell, as soon as he was dead, and 
ring it while they carried him to the grave. Of all 



THE MYSTERIOUS RIVER 103 

this he spoke so calmly and collectedly that you 
would have thought that he spoke of the death and 
burial of another, and not his own. ' ' 

His servants took him ashore at the mouth of the 
St. Joseph Eiver, May 18, 1675, and there he died. 
He was buried at this place according to his direc- 
tions, and a cross was erected to mark the spot. 

About a year thereafter, some Ottawa Indians, 
converts of the good priest, found the grave, opened 
it, cleaned and dried the bones after a custom of 
theirs, wrapped them in birch bark, and, in a pro- 
cession of thirty canoes, carried them to the mission 
of St. Ignace at Mackinac, where, with fitting 
ceremonies, they were buried in a vault in the 
church. 

This church was destroyed by fire in 1705. In 
1877 a half-breed Indian, in clearing land at St. 
Ignace, came upon the ruins of a burned building. 
The village priest, familiar with the story of Mar- 
quette's life and death, surmised that these ruins 
might contain his remains. After diligent search, 
he found some human bones with fragments of birch 
bark. Some of these were re-buried and a fitting 
monument erected over them, some were given to 
various well-known admirers of the Jesuit priest, but 
the larger portion were put in a casket and sent to 
Marquette College, Milwaukee. 

The story of Jolliet's last years is even briefer, 
for but comparatively little is known of him. Upon 



104 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

his return to Quebec, he was met by Father Dablon, 
Marquette's superior, who questioned him closely 
upon his journey, gathering material for a report 
which the priest sent to France. This report was 
published six years before Marquette's journal ap- 
peared in print. 

Jolliet's report had shown the French that the 
Mississippi empties into the Gulf of Mexico, thus 
proving false the theory held so tenaciously by them 
that this river would give them a clear route to the 
Pacific. Though disappointed in this hope, they 
substituted another for it, the discovery of the Mis- 
souri opening up new j^ossibilities of a way to the 
longed-for riches of the East. 

But, in spite of this acknowledged service to New 
France and the mother country, Jolliet met the same 
fate that befell others who had served France well 
— neglect and poverty. It is true that he was 
meagerly rewarded with the gift of the Island of 
Anticosti in the St. Lawrence. Here he built a fort 
and a home for his family, but two years later the 
island was taken by the English, and he with his 
wife and mother-in-law, while attempting to reach 
Quebec, were made prisoners by Phipps, the English 
commander. The Frenchman recovered his liberty, 
but not his property. Of his subsequent life almost 
nothing is known, even the date of his death being 
uncertain. 



CHAPTER YIII 



''THE HOUSE THAT WALKED UPON THE WATER "—1679 

At THE mouth of Cayuga Creek, not far from the 
present site of Buffalo and almost within sound of 
Niagara's plunging flood of waters, there was being- 
built in the winter of 1678-9, a sailing-vessel, the 
Griffon, which was to be 
the first ship to part the 
waters of the Great Lakes 
in the carrying trade be- 
tween the East and the 
West. On her prow was 
the carved image which 
gave her her name — a 
fabulous monster, half 
lion, half eagle, part of the 
Frontenac coat-of-arms. 

On her deck stood a man, cold and stern, shy, self- 
restrained and solitary, ambitious, arousing strong 
love and equally strong hatred, a foe to the Jesuits, 
who likewise hated him, yet an ardent son of the 
faith ; a man exalted by some historians, belittled 
and maligned by others — Robert Cavelier, Sieur de 
La Salle. 

By his side were two men, one an Italian, tall, 

105 




THE GRIFFON 



lOG 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



dark-skinned as an 
Indian, with curly 
black hair and fear- 
less, kindly eyes ; a 
man whom men, 
savage and civiliz- 
ed, loved at sight. 
He was the friend 
and devoted fol- 
lower of La Salle 
til rough good and 
evil report — Henri 
de Tonti. He it was 
under whose direc- 
tion the Griffon 
was being built. 

The other man 
wore a gray capote 
of coarse texture 
whose peaked hood 
hanging behmd his 
shoulders left his 
shaven crown to 
glisten in the sunlight; around his waist the cord of 
the Franciscan Order, and by his side the crucifix. 
AVe recognize a priest, Hennepin by name, whose 
broad nose, fiat lips, many-folded chin and twinkling, 
good-humored eyes make a picture that it seems dif- 
ficult to reconcile with the journey of hardship, toil 




ROBERT DE LA SALLE 



THE GRIFFON 107 

and privation about to be undertaken. But the friar 
had always been fond of strange lands and strange 
peoples, if we may believe his own words about him- 
self. 

"Often,'' he says, "I hid myself behind tavern 
doors while the sailors were telling of their voyages. 
The tobacco smoke made me very sick at the stom- 
ach; but, notwithstanding, I listened attentively to 
all they said about their adventures at sea and their 
travels in distant countries. I could have passed 
whole days and nights in this way without eating." 

The Griffon was not a large ship, probably of 
about forty-five tons' burden. Five cannon peered 
from her port-holes. The crew numbered thirty-one. 

On August 7, 1679, with white sails spread she 
started westward. In three days she reached De- 
troit. Seventeen days more, during which she 
weathered a terrific gale on Lake Huron, sufficed to 
anchor her at Mackinac, where La Salle, clad in a 
scarlet cloak with gold lace trimmings, led the party 
ashore to return thanks for their safe deliverance 
from the fury of the elements. 

The}^ then turned the vessel's i^row westward 
tlirough the straits and across Lake Michigan to 
Green Bay. Great was the amazement and curiosity 
of the Pottawattomies over the "house that walked 
upon the water" — the first sailing-vessel ever seen 
on Wisconsin waters. 

The Griffon remained moored at Washington 



108 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

Island, at the moutli of Green Bay, long enough to 
be freighted with the lieavy load of furs which La 
Salle's agents, sent west while she was building, had 
collected for him. The expedition, however, was not 
merely a commercial one; that it was so at all 
resulted from the fact that La Salle, who had ob- 
tained permission from the king and Frontenac to 
explore the Mississippi, must pay for the enterprise 
out of the profits of the fur-trade. To build the ship 
and equip it he had incurred many debts, and it was 
to cancel these that he now sent the Griffon, under 
the i^ilot's charge, back to Niagara with instructions 
to unload there, purchase more supplies and return 
with the vessel as soon as possible to the head of 
Lake Michigan. 

On September 18, favored by a light wind, she set 
sail and was soon lost to sight on the far horizon, 
never to be heard of more. Whether she met the 
fate shared by hundreds of vessels which have since 
tried to weather the gales of the Great Lakes, or 
whether her crew proved false to their trust, sunk 
her, and, laden with the plunder, were captured by 
the Indians, we cannot tell. ''She was gone, it mat- 
tered little how," says Parkman. Naturally it was 
not till several months afterward that La Salle knew 
that anything had befallen his vessel. 

He and fourteen of his men started out in canoes 
from Green Bay down the west shore of Lake 
Michigan, the next step in their journey to the unex- 



THE GEIFFON ]09 

plored AVest. They themselves encountered fearful 
storms, born out of a clear sky, and were forced 
again and again to land. 

Early in October, compelled by need of corn and a 
violent storm, they put in at what is assumed to 
have been our Milwaukee Bay. Here was a village 
of the Pottawattomies. The Indians were gathered 
upon the shore, but La Salle, fearing that some of 
his men would steal his goods and desert to the 
natives, went farther down the shore despite the 
danger. Some of the party then cautiously made 
their way to the village, only to find it abandoned, 
the savages having been frightened away by the 
strange conduct of the Frenchmen in not landing. 
The voyagers helped themselves to corn^ but left 
suitable compensation for it. 

The next day the journey was resumed, and they 
soon rounded the southern part of Lake Michigan, 
reaching the mouth of the St. Joseph, where 
Marquette had died. 

Here Tonti, who with twenty men had come down 
the eastern shore of the lake, was to meet them, but 
it was twenty days before the young Italian ap- 
peared, his men decreased in number to ten, the 
remainder, because of scarcity of food, having been 
left behind. La Salle sent him back for the others. 
He set out with two men, but a violent storm over- 
turned his boat, and guns, provisions and baggage 
were all lost. The three returned, having only acorns 



110 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 




HENRI DE TONTI 



for food while so doing. Happily, in a few days the 
rest of the party arrived. 

Leaving a few men in charge of the rude stockade 
built here, with instructions to forward the supplies 
of the Griffon as soon as she appeared, La Salle, 
Tonti and Hennepin pushed on. 

On the shore of Lake Peoria, among the Illinois, 



THE GRIFFON HI 

La Salle Imilt a fort which he named Fort Crevecoeiir 
(Heai't])reak), but the heart of the builder was not 
yet broken, in spite of misfortunes and enemies — for 
he had enemies in the Jesuits because he had 
interfered with their fur-trade. 

A Wisconsin Indian in the darkness of night had 
slipped into tlie Illinois village, told the people that 
La Salle was a spy of the Iroquois and would betray 
them, and in the darkness of night slipped away 
again. 

Beset thus by treachery, by rebellion (for his men 
were becoming disloyal), by anxiety for the Griffon's 
fate. La Salle grew impatient. He resolved to leave 
Tonti in command and to go on foot twelve hundred 
miles to Montreal to find out what had become of 
his vessel. He sent Hennepin down the Illinois 
Kiver with instructions to explore the Upper 
Mississippi. 

The story of La Salle from this time on — a tale of 
daring, danger, hardship, suffering, privations and 
death — belongs to other states than Wisconsin. 

Tonti has little more connection with our history. 
Most of his companions deserted him after La Salle's 
departure, and in the fall the terrible Iroquois fell 
upon his friends the Illinois. Tonti nearly lost his 
life in trying to protect them, but they were not 
grateful. It seemed unsafe longer to remain among 
them; accordingly he and the five companions yet 
with him secretly left in a leaky canoe, their faces 




A SIOUX WARRIOR 



THE GEIFFON 113 

turned toward Green Bay, the nearest point of 
safety. 

This journey adds one more to the tales of suffer- 
ing from hunger, cold, sickness and death by the way, 
but the brave men finally reached the Pottawatto- 
mies, all except Father Gabriel, who was treacher- 
ously murdered b)^ a strolling band of Kickapoos 
while he was praying in a secluded place. 

The Pottawattomies, friendly as ever, gave the 
little band shelter for the winter. In the spring, 
recruited in health and energy, Tonti crossed to 
Mackinac, where, to his great joy, he met his loved 
leader, La Salle, twelve months after their parting 
at Fort Creveca^ir. La Salle had his story of ill- 
fortune, plottings of enemies, hindrances and treach- 
ery to tell, but he retained his wonderful courage, 
and still held unfalteringly to his determination to 
explore the Great River. But, as said before, the 
relation of his subsequent explorations belongs not 
with Wisconsin's tales. 

We must follow Friar Hennepin a little longer, 
although his story belongs more to Minnesota than 
to Wisconsin.^ His instructions were to explore the 

1 As to the actual explorations made by this priest, there has been 
much discussion, owing- to the conflicting statements made by himself 
in two books, one of which was published before La Salle's death, the 
other afterward. In the first, he relates entertaininsly the incidents of 
his journey in the upper Mississippi country, probably very largely true 
to facts : in the second, lie makes the astoundins? declaration that he and 
his men explored the whole of the Mississippi from the Illinois to its 
mouth, and that to him. and not to La Salle, belongs all the glory of 
that exploration. It is unfortunate for the friar's reputation for truth 
that in the second he contradicts what he had explicitly stated in the 
first, besides hopelessly confusing and changing dates. 



114 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

upper Mississippi, it being La Salle's plan — one 
wliicli lie afterward carried out — to explore the lower 
liimself. 

The three companions set out, floating down the 
Illinois, the friar still wearing the gray capote and 
hood and the cord of the Franciscan order. They 
fared sumptuously, for game was abundant, although 
Hennepin, never indifferent to the delights of eating, 
did complain of having neither seasoning nor wine 
to make his meals more palatable. 

When they had advanced some distance up the 
Mississippi, they stopped one day in April to mend 
a canoe. Suddenly a war party of naked savages 
came upon them. These proved to be Sioux setting 
out to attack the Miamis in revenge for the murder 
of the son of one of their chiefs. Hennepin was not 
slow in producing the peace-pipe, but they seemed 
to have little respect for this emblem of peace. To- 
bacco met with a little more favor, but did not pre- 
vent their making the three Frenchmen prisoners. 

Hennepin and his companions were forced to pad- 
dle across the river, upon the bank of which the 
Sioux camped for the night, the attack on the Miamis 
abandoned for the time being. The fate of the 
Frenchmen for a while hung in the balance, for the 
Indians were divided in opinion, some being for im- 
mediate torture and death, others deeming this 
course unwise, arguing that it would prevent tlie 
French from trading with them and their thus 



THE GEIFFON 



115 



l)ecoming possessed of the hatchets and guns of 
wliidi they had heard. The latter argument finally 
prevailed, bat the Indians forced tlie prisoners to go 
liome with them. This was pleasing to Hennepin, 
for it will be remembered that he dearly loved to see 
strange coun- 
tries, even if he 
must do so in 
q u e s t i onable 
company. 

They passed 
I^ake Pepin, 
which Hennepin 
called the Lake 
of Tears because 
here the old chief 
who had lost his 
son wept and 

howled over the priest, blaming him for their aban- 
donment of the attack upon the Miamis. They 
reached the chief village of the Sioux in the Mille 
Lacs region, Minnesota, after hardships of which 
Hennepin complains, but which do not appear to 
have been any greater than the Indians themselves 
endured. 

Hennepin was adopted by one of the chiefs as his 
son, but he was held almost as a slave. It was not at 
any time certain that the faction favoring death for 
the Frenchmen would not prevail, and therefore it 




BUFFALO DRAWN BY HENNEPIN 



IIQ THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

was thought best to escape if possible. One of the 
Frenchmen, having taken a dislike to the friar, re- 
fused to be a party to their plans. The other two 
stole away one night, but they were soon recaptured. 

Afterward, while on a buffalo hunt on the Wis- 
consin shore of the Mississippi, the Sioux were sur- 
prised by the appearance among them of Du Lhut, 
a fur-trader, and four companions. Du Lhut had 
heard of this hunting party which had with it three 
white men, and he had come to their rescue. He 
seemed to have great influence over these dreaded 
savages, and when he soundly berated them for 
holding Frenchmen captive and ordered their 
release, he was at once obeyed. 

Abandoning his cherished plan of exploring to the 
west to find the sea of salt of which the Indians had 
told him, he conducted Hennepin and his companions 
over the Wisconsin-Fox route to Green Bay. This 
journey was accomplished in safety, but it does not 
appear that Hennepin had a very grateful heart, 
for in one of his books he traduces Du Lhut, 
his rescuer, and actually claims that the bold 
trader was under his own protection while with 
the Sioux. 

The friar spent the winter at Green Bay, but the 
most important thing he records of the time is his 
renewal of his boyhood sport of skating. He re- 
turned to France in 1682, where he spent much time 
writing accounts of his travels, mostly fictitious, 



THE GRIFFON 



117 



maligning the names of La Salle and Du Lhut, both 
of whom had befriended him. He seems to have 
fallen into disgrace and to have been dismissed from 
his order, after which we hear of him in England and 
then in Eome, at which place he sinks out of sight. 




-^i ^ 



/j^fflTT 



-^ - 



CHAPTEE IX 

THE THOKN IN THE FLESH— 1712-1743 

At the daT\Ti of the eighteenth century, the lilies of 
France, planted by wood ranger, priest and explorer, 
floated over the entire region of New France and 
Louisiana, from Quebec to the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi, and from the Alleghanies nearly to the 
Kockies. Even the haughty Iroquois, after almost 
a century of fiercest hatred of the French, were at 
peace, and, if not allies, were at least neutral. 

But there had already been sown the seeds of 
discontent, which later bore fruit in one of the 
wickedest, bloodiest wars of history, and finally in 
the trailing in the dust of the proud lilies and the loss 
by France of every foot of soil in the New World. 

This discontent had its rise in the system by which 
New France carried on her fur-trade. Monopoly was 
its curse. Because the trade was in the hands of a 
few who, at a large price, purchased from the gov- 
ernment the right of trading, restrictions were placed 
upon it and prices of goods given in exchange for 
furs were ruinously high. 

This latter fact might not have been discovered by 
the Indians had it not been that the English pursued 
an entirely different jDolicy. With them the trade 

118 



THE THORN IN THE FLESH 119 

was open to all ; hence it was that competition made 
them offer better bargains to the Indians. In 1689, 
a French writer says, a beaver skin would buy eight 
]:)Ounds of gunpowder at Albany, at Montreal only 
two ; it would bring forty pounds of lead at Albany, 
while Montreal buyers would give but thirteen ; and 
at Albany six gallons of fire-water would be gener- 
ously dealt out for the skin which at Montreal must 
be sold for one. 

The Indian was not long in finding this out, and 
he naturally wanted to sell in the highest market, 
Perrot, who thoroughly understood the Indians and 
the condition of affairs in the West, warned the 
government tliat the savages were beginning to mur- 
mur, but because of the belief that the link of friend- 
ship that bound the Indians to the French was so 
strong that it could not be broken, no change of 
policy was inaugurated. 

And this belief seems to have been well founded, 
if we except one tribe, the Foxes of Wisconsin, the 
thorn in the flesh of New France. These Indians 
were never friendly to the French. From the first, 
they had met every advance with haughty disdain. 
Allouez had not been kindly received by them. He 
had formed no very favorable opinion of their mor- 
als, being shocked at the number of wives each Fox 
had. The Foxes, in turn, had had 'Mmt a very poor 
opinion of the French ever since two traders in 
beaver skins had been among them." On his second 



120 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



visit, lie learned that some of their number had vis- 
ited Montreal the year before and had been shame- 
fully treated by the soldiers. He says: ''Now they 
were determined to avenge themselves for the bad 

treatment they had 
received in the 
French settle- 
ments/' 

It will be remem- 
bered that the 
Foxes turned back 
at Green Bay after 
they had yielded to 
Perrot's per sua- 
sions to join in the 
ceremony of 1671 at 
Mackinac. He was 
the only French- 
man they ever liked, 
and their liking for 
him was based on 
gratitude, for he 
had once saved the life of the child of a Fox chief. 

Their feeling against the French probably had its 
roots in their passionate love for independence. 
They were wise enough to see what French mastery 
would mean in the end. 

As early as 1694, Count Frontenac heard that the 
Foxes were secretly hostile. He then wrote to the 




A FOX CHIEF 



THE THORN IN THE FLESH 121 

king that these Indians were planning to seek a new 
home on the banks of the Wabash or the Ohio. He 
says : 

"The Foxes are a fierce and discontented people, 
in secret alliance with the English. If they remove 
to the Wabash with their affiliated tribes, the Kicka- 
poos and Mascontens, they will form there a nation 
of fifteen hundred warriors. Far away from their 
enemies, the Sioux, and in close contact with their 
Iroquois and English allies, they will prosper as 
never before. Other Indian malcontents will gather 
around them. They will become a great people, hold- 
ing the key to the valley of the Mississippi. The 
fur-trade will pass into the hands of the English, 
and French supremacy in the West will be at an 
end.^' 

Frontenac's prediction would doubtless have come 
true had the Foxes done as he thought they were 
intending to do, but for some reason they did not 
move to the Wabash, although later they did change 
their home. 

The French, to prevent the English from intruding 
on the fur-trade of the Upper Lakes, and to keep 
their countrymen and their allies from trading with 
the English, had built a fort at Detroit and per- 
suaded some of their closest allies — the Pottawatto- 
mies, the Hurons and part of the Ottawas — to settle 
around it. 

In 1712, the Foxes, Mascontens, Kickapoos and 



;^22 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

part of the Sauks, though uninvited and unwelcome, 
came also. That is, the French later claimed that 
they were uninvited, but a manuscript of the times, 
recently published, seems to bear out the statement 
of the Indians that they came as invited guests, for 
it says, ' ' The commandant, wishing to draw the com- 
merce of all the nations to his post, had sent belts 
to the Mascoutens and Kickapoos to invite them to 
settle there, and they, having accepted the offer, 
came and built a fort at the place which had been 
assigned them." 

But the commandant, wishing to make it seem that 
his subsequent procedure was justified on the plea 
of self-defense, claimed that these Indians came for 
the express purpose of attacking Detroit. If this 
be true, it seems very strange that they should have 
brought along their women and children, and that 
they should have remained quiet from their arrival 
in early spring until May 11, during which time the 
garrison numbered but twenty men. By the latter 
date, the allies, who had been gathered into Detroit 
by messengers, even from as far west as the Mis- 
souri, had all come ; whereupon the French began to 
fire upon the startled Foxes. 

The surprised Indians protested: '^Wliat does this 
mean, my father! You invited us a little while ago 
to come and settle around you, and now you declare 
war against us. AVliat have we done? But we are 
readv. Know ve that the Fox is immortal." 



THE THORN IN THE FLESH 123 

Their protest not being heeded, they retired behind 
their palisades and made ready for defense; the 
French should not find them an easy foe. Such was 
their reputation for valor that the Indian allies did 
not dare attack them, but tried rather to conquer 
them through hunger and thirst. The French built 
two scaffolds twenty-five feet high, and from these 
vantage points poured down such a fire upon them 
that the Foxes could not steal out for water. Thus 
beset, they became furious and made two or three 
desperate sorties, at one time firing hundreds of 
blazing arrows into the fort, thus setting fire to the 
thatched roofs and starting a blaze which the French 
subdued by putting wet skins upon the roofs. 

The allies became disheartened, saying that the 
Foxes could never be conquered — that they were 
braver than any other people. The commandant 
made a last desperate appeal to them, loading them 
with presents. This produced no effect, but when 
some of the Sauks now deserted to the French and 
related in what a condition the Foxes really were — 
"worn out with sickness, famine and constant fight- 
ing" — the courage of the allies rose again. 

The Foxes were indeed in a pitiable condition. 
They had now no resource but to raise the white 
flag of surrender and sue for peace, but not for 
themselves. "It is the life of our women and our 
children that I ask of you," said their envoy. 

But they sued in vain. The French were deter- 



124 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

mined to destroy them root and branch, for only thus 
could they hope to keep the fur-trade of the great 
West unmolested. They would probably have suc- 
ceeded in the extermination of the whole camp and 
the war for the destruction of a people been of short 
duration, had not a heavy storm come up one night, 
nineteen days after the attack on the Foxes had 
begun. Under cover of the darkness the Foxes took 
their flight, but not all escaped. Twelve miles from 
Detroit a part of them were overtaken. It took five 
days more to conquer even these, with such desperate 
valor did they defend themselves. But the fight 
could have but one outcome, for the Indians were far 
outnumbered. Over one thousand were slain, those 
not killed outright being given over to the allies for 
torture and death, not even the women and children 
being spared. Truly it is not surprising that the 
commandant should not want to bear the responsi- 
bility for such an outrage, but we should hardly ex- 
pect him to place it on the God of the Christian; 
yet he says, ^'It is God who has suffered these two 
audacious nations to perish." 

Thus ended the first chapter of a struggle for inde- 
pendence on the one side and for extermination on 
the other. 

But it was only the first chapter, for there were 
yet Foxes, and while there were Foxes there would 
be undying hatred for France and undying desire 
for revenge. But the Red Men had learned wisdom. 



THE THORN IN THE FLESH 125 

They must have help if they hoped to cope with the 
powers arrayed against them. 

In 1714 we find the Foxes in alHance with the 
Sioux, their hereditary enemies, against the Ilhnois, 
humble vassals of the French. So persistent were 
their attacks that in a few years the Illinois were 
driven from their home on the Illinois Eiver. 

The French became alarmed, as well they might. 
It was bad enough to have a bitter enemy in control 
of the chief waterway between the East and the 
West, the Fox-Wisconsin. By driving the Illinois 
away the enemy was now getting control of the 
other great channel. What was to be done? 

It was wisely suggested that the restrictions on the 
fur-trade be removed and it be made open to all, but 
wisdom did not prevail at the court of France. In- 
stead, the brutal and foolish policy of wiping the 
Foxes out of existence was determined upon, in spite 
of the protests of Perrot, now an old man of seventy, 
and of other men experienced in the affairs of the 
West. 

In accord with this determination, an expedition 
was fitted out in 1716, numbering eight hundred men, 
French and Indians. This was the first hostile army 
landed on Wisconsin soil. 

The Foxes were intrenched upon a small hill. Little 
Butte des Morts, near the present site of Neenah. 
' ' Everybody believed, ' ' says Charlevoix, a writer of 
that time, ' ' that the Fox nation was about to be de- 



126 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

stroyed; and so they themselves judged when they 
saw the storm gathering against them; they there- 
fore prepared to sell their lives as dearly as possible. 

' ' One can but dimly imagine the scene : thousands 
of men, women and children tranquilly awaiting their 
doom ; the busy preparations for war, the few guns 
made ready, spears sharpened, the stone arrow- 
heads securely fastened to their shafts; the council 
fires around which the warriors crouched, row upon 
row, in solemn conclave; the long fastings, for the 
Foxes were very devout after their own fashion, and 
would often fast ten days at a time on the eve of 
battle; their incessant war dances, now slow and 
measured, now growing fast and furious until the 
forests rang with their wild songs and cries of 
defiance. ' ' 

The French besieged the fort and dug mines under- 
neath. Hunger and thirst finally drove the Foxes to 
make an offer of surrender, but this was refused. A 
second time they asked for peace, and this time the 
commandant granted it on condition that they re- 
lease all prisoners, replace by a slave every French- 
man killed by them, and pay all expenses of the war 
in furs. He declared that the allies agreed to this, but 
his statement seems to be contradicted by the fact 
that when, five years later, an attempt was made to 
unite them against the Foxes, they refused, saying, 
"It is difficult to place confidence in the French, who 
once before united the nations to assist in extermi- 



THE THOEN IN THE FLESH 127 

nating the Foxes and then granted peace without 
even consulting the allies." 

But the Foxes did not keep the peace as faithfully 
as they might. Three of their hostages held in Que- 
bec died the next winter, and the only remaining one 
lost an eye. AVlien he came back the next spring 
with the commandant to reprove the Foxes for not 
having kept faith with the French, the Indians pre- 
tended to be very submissive. But, matching craft 
with craft, they were in reality preparing for war. 
They had begun the formation of the greatest league 
of Indian tribes ever known upon this continent. In 
1721 Charlevoix says : 

"The nation which for twenty years past has been 
the most talked of in these western parts is the Outa- 
gamies or Renards [Foxes]. The natural fierceness 
of their savagery, soured by the ill-treatment they 
have received, sometimes without cause, and their 
alliance with the Iroquois, have rendered them 
formidable. They have since made a strict alliance 
with the Sioux, a numerous nation inured to war; 
and this union has rendered all the navigation of 
the upper part of the Mississippi almost impractica- 
ble to us. It is not quite safe to navigate the river 
of the Illinois unless we are in a condition to prevent 
surprise, which is a great injury to the trade between 
the two colonies [New France and Louisiana]." 

Tills was not all that the Foxes did. They man- 
aged, in one way and another, to attach to their cause 



128 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 




THE DELLS OP WISCONSIN 

Courtesy of Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Ry. 



all the Indians of Wisconsin except the Chippewas. 
The 8anks, who had been divided, a part for the 



THE THORN IX THE FLESH 129 

Foxes, a part against, all joined the great league. 
The Winnebagoes soon followed, and even the peace- 
loving Menominees fell into line. Truly, the Foxes 
must have had infinite wisdom and patience to accom- 
plish all this ! The Sioux, as has been stated above, 
were fast allies, notwithstanding the efforts of the 
French to break the alliance, and the Foxes even 
appear to have won the friendly feeling of the Iowa 
Indians and the Chickasaws of the lower Mississippi. 

The coureurs de bois, since they were not per- 
mitted to trade legally, did so illegally, and did not 
scruple to furnish the Sioux and the Foxes with fire- 
arms, lead and powder. In 1720, the governor thus 
complains to the king : ' ' This contributes more than 
all else to foster the haughtiness of the Sioux and 
the Foxes. The latter are especially intractable and 
have a very bad influence upon the former. They 
have so prejudiced them against us with stories of 
our treacherous designs that the Sioux turn a deaf 
ear to all the persuasions of our officers. ' ' 

In order to understand how important to the 
French and how formidable this league was, we must 
remember that by this time there were many 
colonists in the Mississippi valley, that the French 
had a line of forts from Quebec to the lower Missis- 
sippi, and that they must keep this line unbroken if 
they wished to keep the two colonies united, for the 
English were already threatening along the Ohio, 
ready to take advantage of any break. 



130 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

In the meantime the Foxes had kept np their con- 
stant warfare against the Illinois, in spite of the 
condition of their treaty by which they bound them- 
selves not to war npon the allies of France. They 
paused not until they had driven the very last tribe 
from the Illinois country. 

In 1726, however, a sort of peace was patched up 
in a meeting at Green Bay with delegates from the 
Sauks, Foxes and Winnebagoes. Soon afterward, in 
1727, a French expedition was suffered to pass un- 
molested over the Fox-Wisconsin route, closed to 
them for some time, on their way to Lake Pepin to 
establish a trading-post among the Sioux. This was 
not a wise policy for the Foxes, as we shall see, for 
this post was later the means of their undoing. 

In 1728, charging that the Foxes had again broken 
faith by attacking the Illinois, the governor, without 
consulting the king, made a plan to destroy them. 
His company consisted of four hundred Frenchmen 
and nine hundred savages. Eeinforcements were 
expected from the Illinois country and from the 
Upper Lakes region. 

"The army toiled painfully over the usual route 
by way of the Ottawa River. In struggling through 
the wilderness, by narrow trails and difficult port- 
ages, the force was necessarily split into detach- 
ments ; but by July 26 all had reached the rendezvous 
on the shore of Lake Huron. Here mass was cele- 
brated before the reunited army. The place of wor- 



THE THORN IN THE FLESH 131 

ship was a green prairie, smooth as a temple floor, 
walled in npon the one side by the dim arches of the 
forest, on the other by the glistening waters of the 
inland sea. In the center stood three priests clad in 
the stately vestments of their office ; before them an 
altar transported with infinite pains through tlie wil- 
derness. Roundabout was a motley host. Soldiers 
in uniform and Canadian hunters in their many- 
colored garb stood beneath the banners of France; 
scantily costumed savages crouched or lay flat on 
the ground, with eyes and ears intent upon the ^ great 
war medicine' of the French. After these pious 
exercises the multitude set out with new ardor to 
exterminate the Foxes, feeling that they had the 
blessing of God upon their efforts." 

The French, leaving Mackinac, soon arrived at the 
mouth of the Menominee River, where they landed, 
as they stated, to provoke an attack from the Me- 
nominees. They were successful in bringing on the 
attack and in putting the Indians to total rout, then 
re-embarked for Green Bay. 

They halted within a few miles of a Sauk village, 
then approached under cover of darkness. But alas 
for the glory they had expected to win by whole- 
sale slaughter! Only four victims were found, the 
rest, warned of their approach, having fled. The 
four, too sick or too old to take flight, were ruth- 
lessly tortured and burned. 

The AVinnebago village next reached also was de- 



132 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

serted, except for a few women and one old man. 
The French burned the cabins and the corn, and their 
allies took the women as slaves and put the old man 
to death by torture. Truly, this was a righteous war ! 

No better success awaited the invaders at the Fox 
village; only two women and a girl remained upon 
whom to wreak their vengeance. Plowever, they 
passed over the country like a plague, laying it waste 
in order that, as the governor wrote, ''one-half these 
nations shall die of hunger and that the rest will 
sue for mercy. ^ ^ 

But what of the fleeing savages? In the glowing 
days of September four thousand of them might 
have been seen hurrying down the Wisconsin, the 
women and children in canoes, the warriors on foot, 
making their way through the thickets and swamps 
of its shores. They turned north at its mouth, ex- 
pecting the Sioux to aid them against the invaders, 
but they were disappointed. The selfish Sioux had 
been won over to the French by the establishment 
of the trading-post on Lake Pepin, and they turned 
a deaf ear to the fugitives. 

The Mascoutens and Kickapoos also deserted 
them. The Winnebagoes were finally received by 
the Sioux, who, it will be remembered, were kin to 
them. The Sauks went back to Green Bay, ready to 
be forgiven, but sore was the distress of the Foxes. 
They found a refuge for a time with the Towa 
Indians, but love of their old home irresistibly drew 



THE THORN IN THE FLEttH 133 

them back to Wisconsin, and they, too, came, begging 
peace. The reply was a fierce attack upon their 
camp by French Indians. 

Later, another expedition was undertaken against 
them, at which time about eighty warriors and three 
hundred women and children were killed or captured, 
the prisoners all being put to death by torture. 

The French used to make excuses for their burning 
of human beings on the plea that they had learned 
it of the savages. ^' Among the wolves we have 
learned to howl," they said; but this would seem 
slight justification for burning innocent women and 
children. 

When we next see the remaining Foxes, they have 
retreated to the Illinois River, and there they take 
stand again. It was thought by the French that they 
were trying to join the Iroquois, not at all an un- 
likely supposition. Of course, another expedition 
was fitted out against them. There began a battle 
on August 29, 1730, which lasted twenty- two days. 
Outnumbered more than four to one, the Foxes 
fought bravely, desperately, but it was the story of 
Detroit over again. Weakened by hunger and thirst, 
they again took advantage of a heavy storm to steal 
away. Morning found the pursuers close upon their 
heels. The result is sickening to relate — two hun- 
dred braves and six hundred w^omen and children 
left dead upon the prairie. About sixty warriors 
were all that escaped. 



134 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

It would seem that the Foxes were at last subdued, 
for the dead cannot rebel. But so long as a single 
Fox remained alive, so long was the murderous lust 
of France not satisfied. 

For two years we hear nothing of the scattered 
remnants of this brave people; then we learn that 
the few survivors, still clinging to old Wisconsin, 
are dwelling upon the Wisconsin River. It is not 
long before another expedition is sent against them 
(1731-2), this time made up of Christian Iroquois 
and Hurons. Unprepared for battle, the Foxes can 
make little resistance, and three hundred more men, 
women and children are added to the long list of 
victims. 

There now remained only about fifty or sixty war- 
riors to keep alive the memory of their wrongs. Of 
this number, some twenty, with thirty or forty 
women, went in despair to Green Bay and threw 
themselves on the mercy of the commandant. Kiala, 
their chief, was sent to Quebec and from there as a 
slave to Martinique, where his faithful wife followed 
him. The others were allowed to remain that 
winter, and were placed with some Sauks across 
the river from the fort. The next spring the gov- 
ernor ordered them all brought to Montreal 
or destroyed. 

In attempting to carry out this order the com- 
mandant attacked the Sauks, who would not give u]^ 
their guests. In the attack he lost his life, being shot 



THE THORN IN THE FLESH I35 

by a twelve-year-old boy, Blackbird. Three days 
later the Sauks and Foxes again took to flight. 

The exiles wandered far, gathering up the few 
remaining Foxes as they went. They again sought 
refuge with the Sioux, but were refused, then among 
the lowans, but in vain. Finally they settled upon 
the Wapsipinacon Eiver in Iowa. 

It was not to be expected that they would be 
allowed to dwell here in peace. In 1734 another 
expedition was started out from Montreal to attack 
them, but it proved a failure and a temporary peace 
agreement followed. 

During the next few years treaties were made and 
remade, only to be broken. In 1741 the Foxes again 
made an alliance with the Sioux, showing that wis- 
dom and statecraft were not yet dead in them any 
more than were courage and desire for vengeance. 

In 1742 they are reported as submitting, but the 
French could not really claim a victory, for the 
Foxes, in spite of the great efforts put forth for 
over a quarter of a century to destroy them, num- 
bered still, even in 1736, one hundred warriors and 
seven hundred women and children, undaunted and 
defiant as before. 

It was not long before all that remained, except a 
few around the sites of Chicago and Milwaukee, 
moved to Green Bay, but later they returned to the 
Wisconsin, and then settled along the eastern bank of 
the Mississippi, from the Wisconsin Eiver south. 



136 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

From this time on they do not seem to have gone on 
the warpath again, but they are evidently much 
feared, for the governors were constantly propitiat- 
ing them with presents. 

Thus this war of over half a century came to an 
end. Its bloody trail could be traced over four 
states — Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. 
France had resorted to savage and cruel warfare 
and had put forth every effort to crush this enemy 
under her foot, but could never claim complete 
victory. 

In its purpose and conduct, the folly and the in- 
herent weakness of the policy of France in the New 
World had been strikingly shown. The Foxes, even 
at the lowest ebb of their fortunes, had had sym- 
pathizers among the other Indians, for these tribes 
could not but fear that should the French succeed in 
destroying the Foxes, their own destruction might 
( ome next. Add to this fear the discontent caused by 
the condition of the fur-trade, and the insecure 
foundation of French empire in the West will be 
seen. This was indirectly contributed much to its 
final downfall. 



CHAPTER X 

WISCONSIN BECOMES ENGLISH DOMAIN— 1756-1763 

The struggle between France and England was of 
long duration. In the Old World it had stretched 
through centuries, but it was not extended to the 
New until the natural expansion of the English fur- 
trade and settlement to the West and the occupation 
of the Mississippi valley by the French made the 
conflict of interests and claims only a question of 
time. 

The racial enmity existing between the two peoples 
made the colonists ready to espouse any quarrel of 
the mother countries, even had there been no local 
cause for irritation. But the fur-trade furnished 
abundant local irritation. Hence we need not be sur- 
prised that as early as 1690, when William, Prince 
of Orange, brought to the throne of England his 
great hatred for Louis XIV of France, the outbreak 
of hostilities between the two countries which fol- 
lowed his accession was duplicated across the Atlan- 
tic in what was known as King William ^s War (1690- 
1697). Again, in Queen Anne\s War (1702-1713), 
did the colonists fight valiantly in tlie quarrel of the 
mother countries, and yet again in King George's 
War (17-t4-17-t8). 

137 



138 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



LINE OF FRENCH FORTS 



Embittered by these many wars and by the con- 
flicts growing out of the fur-trade and westward 
expansion, the colonists were getting ready for the 
final struggle. The result of this struggle was so 



BECOMES ENGLISH DOMAIN I39 

plainly to be foreseen that lie who ran might read. 
The colonial policy of the two countries made for 
strength in the one case and for weakness in the 
other. France established a line of garrisoned posts 
from mouth to mouth of her two great rivers, the 
main oliject of which was commercial. Little organ- 
ized attempt was made to settle. On the other hand, 
the English were settlers, clearing the land, tilling 
the soil and building permanent homes. They came 
to stay, and stay they did. 

This difference in policy, with its logical outcome, 
was far-reaching in its effects, for it determined that 
"Wisconsin should be Anglo-Saxon instead of French 
in language, government, institutions, education and 
religion. 

The danger to France in the encroachment of the 
English along the Ohio was apparent to one, at least, 
of the governors of New France, Galissoniere, for 
we learn that in 1750, after his return to France, he 
warned the government that communication between 
New France and Louisiana was endangered. 

"The farming and home life of the British, he 
pointed out, prompted a growth that threatened to 
overcome all opposition and to gain for them the 
valley of the Ohio. Once the enemy had free access 
to the Mississippi, he stated, they would alienate the 
Indians who remained friendly to the French and 
would find their way to Louisiana, and, in the end, 
to Mexico. He proposed to settle ten thousand peas- 



140 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

ants in the Ohio valley to resist these encroach- 
ments." 

But the king and his advisers paid little attention 
to him. They were no wiser than were those Perrot 
warned of the danger of their policy against the 
Foxes. Their folly cost them a kingdom, but so little 
was the worth of that kingdom realized, even after 
a century and a half of possession, that Voltaire, on 
its downfall, is said to have congratulated the king 
on having got rid of fifteen hundred leagues of snow ! 

No battles of this memorable struggle for the prize 
of half a continent took place on Wisconsin soil, but 
one of her citizens played an important part in it. 
Charles Langlade, the founder of the tirst perma- 
nent settlement within the borders of the state, may 
properly be called our first citizen, and he it was 
who took part in more than one of the battles of this 
war. 

Charles Langlade, born in 1729, was tli.e son of a 
Canadian gentleman, Augustin Langlade, and an 
Ottawa squaw, sister of the head chief. The family 
lived in Mackinac, where Charles was educated, very 
imperfectly, by the Jesuit priest of the mission, for 
the boy felt within him the call of the wild more 
strongly than the love for learning. 

His uncle, the Ottawa chief, took Charles with him 
on the warpath when the ]:>oy was but eleven, and 
thus early he learned his first lesson in savage war- 
fare. Because the Ottawas, defeated in two previous 



f 



BECOMES ENGLISH DOMAIN 141 

expeditions, were successful in this one, tliey attrib- 
uted their success to the presence of young Charles, 
lie thus gained great influence over them, an 
influence that increased with his years. 

It is known that the Langlades, father and son, 
visited Green Bay often in the interests of their 
business, fur-trading, from 1745 on for a number of 
years, and that they claimed a tract of land on the 
Fox River. It was Charles Langlade who led the 
attack against the Sauks to revenge the killing of 
the French commandant by Blackbird. 

In 1752 Langlade was chosen to command an expe- 
dition against the Miami Indians on the Miami River. 
These Indians had been harboring English traders 
in their village, and the French determined to de- 
stroy it. Langlade with two hundred fifty Ottawas 
left Mackinac and reached the Miami region by the 
Lake Huron, Detroit and Lake Erie route. The 
attack was fierce and short. The village was de- 
stroyed and the chief slain, whereupon Langlade's 
cannibal followers cooked him in a kettle and ate him. 

Thus Langlade, as Bancroft says, ''began the con- 
test which was to scatter death broadcast throughout 
the world." 

During the next three years Langlade spent most 
of his time at Green Bay engaged in his regular busi- 
ness. In 1754 he married a young French girl who 
is described as "remarkably beautiful, having a 



142 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

slender figure, regular features and very dark eyes. 
These physical gifts were allied to rare moral quali- 
ties, which secured her a general respect at Michili- 
mackinac and afterwards at Green Bay." Her life 
was not so happy as it might have been had she 
lived elsewhere, for her dread of the Indians was 
so great that the mere sight of them always gave 
her a severe nervous shock. From their own cabin 
door the Langlades could see a long distance down 
the river. The sight of an Indian canoe approaching 
threw the young wife into spasms of terror. ''They 
are coming ! They are coming ! ' ' she would cry. ' ' We 
shall all be massacred ! " It was often very difficult 
even for her husband to allay her terror. 

Shortly after his marriage — that is, in 1755 — 
Langlade was called upon to lead his savage army 
against the English at Fort Duquesne. It was here, 
as we know, that General Braddock, disregarding 
the words of young Washington, persisted in fighting 
according to established forms of warfare, and it 
was here that his obstinacy caused his terrible defeat 
and the death of half a thousand men. 

Langlade was in the thick of the fight and is cred- 
ited with having originated the plan by which Brad- 
dock was surprised and defeated. General Bur- 
goyne, under whom he afterward served in the Eevo- 
lutionary War, wrote of him as "the very man who 
projected and executed Braddock 's defeat." 

After this battle, Langlade returned to Green Bay 



BECOMES ENGLISH DOMAIN 



143 



and was given the superintendency of Indian affairs 
in the district of Michigan. Later, in 1757, he was 
made second in command at Mackinac. 

But the war was not over, and he was again needed 
at the front, this time to assist in tlie attack npon 
Fort WilHam Hen- 
ry, on Lake George. 
His braves glee- 
fully joined in the 
massacre which 
took place after the 
fort was captured. 

In 1759 we find 
him on the plains 
of Abraham with 
two hundred In- 
dians from Wis- 
consin — Ottawas, 
Chippewas, Sauks, 
Foxes and Menom- 
inees. It is report- 
ed that Langlade 
actually saw the 
British troops un- 
der Wolfe landing 

below the cataract preparatory, to climbing the 
heights, and that he hastened to the French com- 
mander and told him that if he would attack the Eng- 
lish immediately he could completely destroy the de- 




AUGUSTIN GIlIG>iOX 

Grandson and Biographer of 
Charles Langlade 



144 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

tachment, but the officer delayed and thus lost a 
chance of saving the day. 

On the day of the famous battle on the plains of 
Abraham, when Wolfe and Montcalm both lost their 
lives, the one in victory, the other in defeat, Lang- 
lade is said to have fought furiously. It is said of 
him that "he seemed to delight to be in the midst of 
the din of arms and the yells of the combatants. A 
succession 'of rapid discharges having heated his 
gun to such a degree that he could not use it again 
for a few minutes, he drew his pipe from his pocket, 
filled it with tobacco, struck fire with the aid of his 
tinder box, then lighted it, appearing as calm amidst 
the cannonade and the whistling of bullets as if he 
had been tranquilly seated by the fire in bivouac." 

Quebec fell, and with it all hope of saving French 
dominion in America. The dragon of St. George 
replaced the proud lilies of France in the valley of 
the St. Lawrence and of the Mississippi to the east. 

Even before the treaty of peace was signed in 
1763 the British flag floated over Green Bay, the 
fort being occupied in 1761 by a detachment of 
English soldiers, and the name changed to Fort 
Edward Augustus. The commander. Captain Bal- 
four, found the fort in a dismal, delapidated state. 

Langlade returned to Mackinac after the fall of 
Quebec, and he and his father took the oath of alle- 
giance to England's king. Charles was to continue 
as superintendent of Indian affairs at Green Bay, 



BECOMES ENGLISH DOMAIN I45 

and the farm on the Fox River became the perma- 
nent home of tlie family in 1763 or 1764. Here Lang- 
lade lived out the remainder of his days. He seems 
to have won the confidence of the British commander 
at Mackinac, and the English evidently were wise 
enough to try to win his good-will and keep it. A 
letter from this commander, dated April 18, 1777, 
says: 

"I send you eighty pounds of tobacco, a sack of 
corn — ground, in order that the gentlemen may not 
compel their wives to grind it — two barrels of 
whisky that they may not drive you wild. Besides, 
I send my best respects to Madame Langlade, and 
beg her to accept two kegs of brandy, one barrel of 
salt, a small barrel of rice, and twenty pounds of 
tobacco, if necessary. I also send for Madame a 
sack of one hundred twenty-three pounds of flour as 
a present. These, Monsieur, are all the gifts I am 
able to send you at present." 

During the American Revolution, Langlade and 
his braves performed the same service for the Eng- 
lish that they had for their French masters. For 
these services he received an annuity of eight hun- 
dred dollars, and a grant of three thousand acres 
of land in Canada, and was confirmed in his title to 
his Green Bay farm. 

He spent his old age here, busy, contented, happy. 
His grandchildren gathered about him, and he took 
great delight in telling them of the many battles — 



146 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

ninety-nine, lie asserted — in which he had taken 
part.^ On each succeeding birthday, the people of 
Green Bay raised a flagpole in his honor and greeted 
their first settler with rousing cheers and a salute 
of musketry. He died in 1800, still retaining the love 
of his savage followers, who called him, A-ke-wau- 
geJie-tan-so — ^'He who is fierce for land" — that is, a 
military conqueror. 



1 One grandson, Augustin Grignon, dictated an interesting narrative of 
.his grandfather's life to the late Lyman C Draper, and it was published 
in Volume III of the Wisconsin Historical Collections. 



CHAPTER XI 

WISCONSIN'S FIEST ENGLISH TRAVELER— 1766-1768 

The tale of the conception, execution and failure of 
Pontiac's great conspiracy has been oft told, but it 
has little direct connection with Wisconsin history. 
AVisconsin's Indians, with the exception of the Chip- 
pewas, a part of the Ottawas and the Milwaukee 
band, which was made up of the offscourings of sev- 
eral different tribes, had remained loyal to the Brit- 
ish, and thus were the means of bringing to naught 
the great scheme of the great chief. Had they not 
"overawed the Ottawas and curbed the Chippewas, 
the latter would have gone to the help of their breth- 
ren at Detroit and the success of Pontiac been 
assured. ' ' 

Thus the Indians of Wisconsin were the humble 
means of securing firm and peaceable possession of 
the Northwest to the British. Hebberd even goes so 
far as to assert that they thus helped to bring about 
the independence of the colonies, for had the Indians 
on the borders been unsubdued, he thinks the colonies 
would never have dared to separate from the mother 
country. 

However this may be, the conspiracy failed; the 
Indians, as a rule, gave their new masters a hearty 

147 



148 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

welcome, and the fur-trade, the only enterprise which 
the white man so far had carried on in Wisconsin, 
flourished. The French fur-trader had now to meet 
the competition of his English rival right on the 
ground, for the latter was no longer excluded and 
the former still roamed the forests at will. 

Settlement had not yet been attempted, but on the 
contrary was discouraged for the time being, it being 
deemed best, for many reasons, to "let the savages 
enjoy their deserts in quiet. ' ' 

But this great Northwest was far from being a 
desert, as the English government and people learned 
a few years later. A book published in 1778 gave an 
account of tlie travels in this region of Cai3tain Jona- 
than Carver, of Connecticut, in 1766-8.' It was much 
read, for men were anxious to know of this far-off 
land. 

Captain Carver was impelled to make the long and 
dangerous journey therein described by the desire 
to correct what he believed to be inaccurate maps 
and false accounts published by the French. It was 
his intention to travel from the Atlantic to the Pa- 
cific. That he did not reach his goal is true, but, if 

1 The full title of this book was : Three Years' Travels Through the 
Interior Parts of North America, for More than Five Thousand Miles : 
Containing an Account of the Great Lakes and All the Lakes. Islands and 
Rivers, Cataracts. Mountains, Minerals, Soil and Veuetable I'roductions 
of the Northwest Regions of That Vast Continent : With a Description of 
the Birds, Beasts. Reptiles. Insects and Fishes Peculiar to the Country. 
Together with a Concise History of the Genius, Manners and Customs of 
the Indians Inhabiting the Lands That Lie Adjacent to the Heads and 
to the \Yestward of the Great River ^Mississippi ; and an Appendix 
Describing the I'ncultivated Parts of America That Are :Most Pi-oper for 
Forming Settlements. By Captain Jonathan Carver of the I'rovincial 
Troops in America. 



WISCONSIN'S FIEST ENGLISH TRAVELEK 



149 



his account is to be credited, he did travel as far 
west as the Carver River, a branch of the Minnesota, 
about two hundred miles from the mouth of the 
latter. 

Lack of space forbids a detailed account of this 

traveler's jour- 
ney, interesting 
as it is. We must 
be content to 
note only in a 
general way the 
points of inter- 
est to readers 
of Wisconsin's 
history. 

Thi nk in g it 
safer to travel 
as a trader, Car- 
ver fitted him- 
self out with ar- 
ticles of barter. 
Thus equipped, 
he reached Fort 
Edward Augus- 
tus (Green Bay) in September, 1766. He found 
little to interest him here. A few French families, 
Langlade's among the number, were the only white 
inhabitants, the English having abandoned the fort 
soon after taking possession. 







/k^/iy^^J .J~f Mit -ict.£i^^-£, 4' A^'^^ '^-arrj 



X50 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

His next rest was at the great Winnebago town 
at the entrance of Lake Winnebago. He found the 
village ruled by a queen whom the Indians called 
"Glory of the Morning." The name, so suggestive 
of charm and beauty, evidently was a misnomer, 
judged by the white man's standards, for Captain 
Carver's description of her suggests little of at- 
tractiveness : 

"She was a very ancient woman, small in stature 
and not much distinguished by her dress from sev- 
eral young women that attended her. Her attendants 
seemed greatly pleased whenever I showed any 
token of respect for their queen, particularly when 
I saluted her, which I frequently did to acquire her 
favor. On these occasions the good lady endeavored 
to assume a juvenile gayety, and by her smiles 
showed she was equally pleased with the attention I 
paid her." 

Whatever she might lack in personal charm, her 
hospitality was unquestioned. Carver says, "She 
received me with great civility and entertained me 
in a very distinguished manner during the four days 
I continued with her." 

Eesuming his journey, after bestowing many pres- 
ents on the queen and receiving her blessing in 
return, he passed over the now familiar Fox- Wiscon- 
sin trail to Prairie du Chien. He stopped on the way 
to visit the great town of the Sauks near where 
Prairie du Sac now is, then a village of the Foxes 



WISCONSIN'S FIEST ENGLISH TKAVELER 151 

near the present site of Muscoda, and finally reached 
the mouth of the Wisconsin on October 15. 

He thus describes the Indian village which he 
found here: 

"It is a large town and contains about three hun- 
dred families. The houses are well built after the 
Indian manner and pleasantly situated on a very 
rich soil, from which they raised every necessary of 
life in great abundance. I saw many horses here of 
a good size and shape. This town is the great mart 
where all the adjacent tribes, and even those who 
inhabit the most remote branches of the Mississippi, 
annually assemble about the latter end of May, bring- 
ing with them the furs to dispose of them to the 
traders. But it is not always that they conclude their 
sale here ; this is determined by a general council of 
the chiefs, who consult whether it would be more 
conducive to their interest to sell their goods at this 
place or carry them on to Louisiana or Michili- 
mackinac. ' ' 

The horses here spoken of, the first brought to 
Wisconsin, came from the Indians of the lower 
Mississippi, who had obtained the animals in trade 
or otherwise from the Spaniards. The French, 
having to travel so much by water, never took horses 
with them. 

Carver was accompanied on this exploring expedi- 
tion by traders. They chose to spend the winter at 
Prairie du Chien, but he, in company with a French 



152 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

voyageur and a Mohawk Indian, went np the Missis- 
sippi as far as Lake Pepin. He noted the mounds 
of this region and thus writes of them : 

"One day, having landed on the shore of the 
Mississippi, some miles below Lake Pepin, wliile my 
attendants were preparing their dinner, I walked out 
to take a view of the adjacent country. I had not 
proceeded far before I came to a fine, level, open 
plain, on which I perceived at a little distance a par- 
tial elevation that had the appearance of an 
entrenchment. On a nearer inspection, I had a 
greater reason to suppose that it had really been 
intended for this many centuries ago. Notwithstand- 
ing that it was now covered with grass, T could 
plainly discern that it had once been a breastwork of 
about four feet in height, extending the best part of 
a mile, and sufficiently capacious to cover five thou- 
sand men. Its form was somewhat circular and its 
flank reached to the river. Though much defaced by 
time, every angle was distinguishable, and appeared 
as regular, and fashioned with as much military skill 
as if planned by Vauban' himself. The ditch was not 
visible, but I thought, on examining more curiously, 
that I could perceive there certainly had been one. 
From its situation also I am convinced that it must 
have been designed for this purpose. It fronted the 
country, and the rear was covered by the river; nor 
was there any rising ground for a considerable way 

1 Vauban : a French military engineer. 



WISCONSIN'S FIEST ENGLISH TRAVELER 153 

that commanded it. A few straggling oaks were 
alone to be seen near it. In many places small tracks 
were worn across it by the feet of elks and deer, and 
from the depth of the bed of earth by which it was 
covered I was able to draw certain conclusions of its 
great antiquity.'' 

Spending the winter among the Sioux of this 
region, he explored much of Minnesota. From these 
Indians he learned of the "shining mountains" to 
the West full of gold and silver, and also of the 
Oregon (Columbia) River emptying into the Pacific, 
but he traversed but a fraction of the distance 
toward them. 

He left the Sioux in April, 1767, and with three 
hundred of them as companions visited their great 
cave at St. Paul, a cave where the bones of their 
ancestors lay and where they held their annual 
spring council. Here he delivered an address to 
them, and here, he asserted, he was given a grant to a 
vast tract of land, fourteen thousand square miles in 
extent, east and west of the Mississippi River. 

In later years Carver's heirs made three attempts 
to have Congress ratify this grant, but each attempt 
failed after long investigation by the Congressional 
committee. As a matter of fact, the grant seems 
very questionable, but the term "Carver's Tract" 
appeared upon maps of the United States for many 
years. There are now in certain western counties of 
the state deeds on file by which, under this grant, 



154 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 




CARVERS WISCONSIN CLAIM 



titles to tracts of land were conveyed, bnt these titles 
were, of course, worthless. 

To return to the explorer himself, he made his 
way back to Mackinac by way of the Chippewa and 
Lake Superior, after having explored the Minnesota 
River for two hundred miles. He was prevented 



WISCONSIN'S FIEST ENGLISH TRAVELER 155 

from going farther west by his failure to get trading 
supplies. To go without these was to invite disaster. 
He reached Boston in October, 1768 ; thence he went 
to London. He had made a journey of over a 
thousand miles in a little birch bark canoe. Filled 
with enthusiasm by what he had seen, he projected 
vast colonization schemes as soon as he landed in 
England. But ill luck seemed to have marked him 
for a victim. Misfortunes overtook the great trav- 
eler and he died of starvation in 1780. 

Though we may question the value of his book 
beyond its breezy, entertaining style, one sentence 
in it deserves attention in the light of after events 
of which it seems the prophecy : 

^*As the seat of empire from time immemorial has 
been gradually progressing toward the West, there 
is no doubt but at some future period mighty king- 
doms will emerge from these wildernesses, and 
stately palaces and solemn temples with gilded spires 
reaching to the skies supplant the Indian huts whose 
only decorations are the barbarous trophies of their 
vanquished enemies. ' ' 



CHAPTER XII 

EEVOLUTIONAEY DAYS— 1775-1783 

Obstinate tyranny on the part of England's king 
and unwise colonial legislation on the part of Eng- 
land's Parliament brought about the successful 
revolt of the American colonies and the birth of a 
new nation dedicated to the principle that "all men 
are created equal and are endowed by their Creator 
with certain unalienable rights." 

Wisconsin, with the rest of the territory bounded 
by the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Great Lakes, 
became a part of the new nation, but as conquered 
territory, not as an independent, self-governing 
state. 

As said before, Wisconsin had but a minor part 
in the Revolutionary War, and that on the side of the 
British. Her handful of white citizens and her cop- 
per-colored savages fought with the Redcoats, not 
because they thought England's treatment of her 
colonies just, but because they knew nothing of the 
(luestion at issue, and when they learned of the war 
two years after it began the line of least resistance 
naturally led them to England's ranks. Besides, 
England offered them an incentive that could not 
fail to appeal to the savage hearts of the Red Men : 

156 



KE VOLUTION AEY DAYS I57 

the British commandant at Detroit, General Hamil- 
ton, sent emissaries among them, offering a bounty 
on every American scalp taken. This was something 
they could understand, while ^'taxation without 
representation" would sound on deaf ears. 

Then, too, the British general chose his agents 
wisely. He sent among them Charles Langlade and 
his step-nephew, Charles Gautier, both of whom had 
great influence with the India^ns. The latter, like his 
imcle, was a son of the wild and spoke all the dialects 
of the northwestern tribes. No better man could 
have been chosen to carry the war belt from village 
to village. 

At one of his councils with the Indians he made 
the following speech, so reported by him in a letter 
to a British official: 

"My bi^others, I announce to you on the part of 
your father that if you do not hasten to see him this 
year you will make him think that you are not his 
children and he will be angry. 

"He has a long arm and very large hands. 

* ' He is good ; he has a good heart when his children 
heed him. 

"He is bad, he is terrible, he sits in judgment on 
all the Indians and French." 

Judging from the above, Gautier was not very 
ready of tongue, but he did not have a critical audi- 
ence, except when he addressed the renegade Mil- 
wacky (Milwaukee) Indians. These proved obdurate 



158 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

and unmoved, so that he was forced to ask his uncle 
to come in person to appeal to them. 

Langlade's method of dealing with them is thus 
described : 

^'He erected a lodge in the midst of the Indian 
village, with a door at each end ; he then had several 
dogs killed preparatory to the dog feast, and placed 
the heart of one of these animals on a stick at each 
opening. This done, he invited the savages to the 
dog feast, of which they are very fond. 

"Afterward he chanted a war song, and, passing 
around the lodge from one door to the other, tasted 
at each a piece of the dog's heart. This signified 
that if brave hearts beat in the bosoms of the Indians 
they would . . . accompany him to war. 

"It was an ancient custom, and they recognized 
the force of Langlade's appeal; so one after another 
they chanted the old war song and directed their 
steps in large numbers to L'Arbre Croche."' 

As a result of the combined efforts of the two men 
a considerable number of Indians gathered at Macki- 
nac ready for the hunt for the scalps of the Long 
Knives, as the Virginians under George Eogers 
Clark was called. The outcome of this expedition 
we shall see later. 

To George Eogers Clark is due the credit of 
winning the Northwest for the American colonies. 
He was the originator and the executor of the policy 

iL'Arbio C'roche : A villago near ^Mackinac 



REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 159 

of expansion which has since extended the domain of 
the Stars and Stripes not only from ocean to ocean 
but even to the islands of the sea. 

At the outbreak of the Revolution the western 
posts were all garrisoned by British soldiers. The 
young Virginian persuaded Patrick Henry, then 
Governor of Virginia, to allow him to raise a com- 
pany of men to surprise and capture the posts north 
of the Ohio — Cahokia, Kaskaskia, \Jincennes, Detroit 
and Mackinac. He was made a colonel, and suc- 
ceeded in raising nearly two hundred men for the 
defense of Kentucky, then organized as a county of 
Virginia. 

The expedition set out in the early summer of 
1778. Kaskaskia was the first point of attack. With 
not even a horse to carry supplies, they marched 
across stream and prairie, and, as planned, 
surprised the post, which surrendered July 4. 

Cahokia and Vincennes were gained by moral 
suasion through the efforts of a priest. Father 
Gibault, whom Clark had won over to the American 
cause. Thus in less than a month was the whole 
Illinois country secured for the struggling United 
States of America. 

Clark could ill spare men to gu^rd the posts taken, 
so he left but two at Vincennes, a captain and a 
private. 

About six months later General Hamilton marched 
from Detroit with eight hundred British soldiers to 



160 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



recapture the fort. On the approach of the enemy 
the two sturdy defenders placed a loaded cannon at 
the gate, and the captain, lighted match in hand, 
called ''Halt !" The British forces halted, and Gen- 
eral Hamilton de- 
manded a surrender. 
The captain refused 
unless the garrison 
was accorded all the 
honors of war. After 
some parley this was 
granted. The sur- 
prise of the British 
may be imagined 
when out marched, 
with colors flying, two 
men — one officer and 
one private! It is 
to be hoped that 
General Hamilton 
saw the point of this 
American joke. 

But the story of 
Vincennes is not yet finished. George Rogers Clark 
has yet a word to sa}^ About a month after its re- 
capture, learning that Hamilton had retained less 
than one hundred men to garrison the post, and also 
that with these and five hundred Indians he intended 
to attack Clark at Ka ska ski a in the spring, the latter 




GEOUCiE ROGEKS CLARK 



EEVOLUTIONARY DAYS 161 

decided that lie would rather be the attacking than 
the attacked party. Not waiting for spring, with 
less than two hundred men, he set out February 4, 
1779, on a march which has few parallels in history, 
a march of two hundred miles across flooded rivers 
just escaping winter's icy grasp, and over prairies 
and swamps covered with ice, water and mud. Such 
a march might well daunt any but the stoutest hearts. 

When he reached the Little Wabash, Clark found 
that the floods had increased its width to a league. 
It took two days to get the men and ammunition 
across. One of the incidents of this crossing is 
traditional in the Clark family: 

^'The men had halted, cold, hungry and tired, on 
land that was somewhat dry. They were reluctant 
to plunge into the icy flood. Clark, perceiving their 
reluctance, realized that they must somehow be filled 
with enthusiasm. He quickly thought out a plan. 
There was in his company a sergeant of great stat- 
ure, six feet two inches, and a drummer boy who 
was very small. Clark mounted the little drummer 
on the shoulders of the stalwart sergeant and gave 
orders to him to advance into the half frozen water. 
He did so, the little drumm.er beating the charge from 
his lofty perch, while Clark, with sword in hand, fol- 
lowed them, giving the command, 'Forward, march!' 
as he threw aside the floating ice. Elated and amused 
with the scene, the men promptly obeyed, holding 
their rifles above their heads, and, in spite of all 



162 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 




THE DRUMMER BOY AND THE SERGEANT 



obstacles, reached the high land beyond them 
safely.'^ 

The next obstacle was the Embarrass River. All 
day they waded about on the bank of the stream, 
seeking in vain for a place where they could cross. 
Weak from hunger, cold and fatigue, they waded 
through the mud until night found them on a small 
hillock only partially under water. The fort was 
only nine miles away, so near that the morning guns 



REVOLUTIONARY DAYS 163 

wakened them from their uneasy slumbers. The dis- 
tance was not great, to be sure, but there was the 
flooded river across their path. They finally aban- 
doned hopes of fording it, and followed its course to 
where it empties into the Wabash. 

Here they built a few pirogues for the weak, the 
stronger wading through icy water breast high. But 
when they had crossed the main channel of the 
stream, they were not yet on dry land, for around 
them stretched a flood a league in extent. The men 
were starving, the weather so cold that their wet 
clothes became a frozen coat of mail, and it is no 
wonder that many of them threatened desertion. But 
they had to deal with one who knew no such word as 
fail and who feared no m^an. He ordered any man 
who refused to march to be shot. This touched the 
right chord, and the men, with an enthusiastic shout, 
pushed on. A few hours more and Vincennes was 
in full view — the garrison wholly ignorant of their 
proximity, as Clark learned from a captured hunter. 

Retreat was impossible, delay dangerous, the men 
but poorly equipped to attack a well-guarded post. 
Clark realized that strategy must supply what he 
lacked in men and equipment. 

Just before set of sun, in and out among the hills 
bordering the fort, he marched and countermarched 
his few men, so that the force seemed to be immense, 
especially as Clark's officers, on horses taken from 
the enemy, dashed back and forth, sending out ring- 



164 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

ing commands as though directing a host. The colors 
on a tall pole appeared again and again at long inter- 
vals. It was like the march of supernumeraries on 
the stage of a theater, who appear, disappear and 
reappear as though countless numbers were in the 
march. 

The stratagem was a complete success. A sudden 
approach from an unexpected quarter brought them 
to a point where they could dig rifle pits within thirty 
yards of the walls, so near that the cannon could not 
be turned on them. In the morning the firing began. 

It was not long before Clark sent Hamilton — the 
' ' hair-buying general, ' ' as the Americans called him 
because of the bounty offered on scalps — an order to 
surrender. The order said that he would receive the 
"treatment due to a murderer" if they stormed the 
fort. 

Hamilton haughtily refused to surrender, and 
fighting was resumed. The Americans, then as now 
the best marksmen in the world, actually shot out the 
eyes of the British soldiers who peeped through the 
loop-holes. 

Add to the impression made by such sharpshoot- 
ing the alarm caused by the news that the Americans 
had intercepted and tomahawked a party of Indians 
sent out from the fort on a scalp-hunting foray, and 
it is not surprising that Hamilton concluded to sur- 
render. The prisoners were accorded the honors of 
war. Hamilton was held a prisoner for some months. 



EEVOLUTIONARY DAYS 165 

but was finally released by Washington. History 
does not record whether or not he appreciated this 
second American joke played on him. 

It was soon after this surrender that the Indians 
enlisted for service by Langdale and Gautier 
marched from Mackinac to St. Joseph, ready to cap- 
ture the scalps of Clark and his Long Knives. Much 
to their surprise and disgust they here learned that 
Hamilton had surrendered Vincennes and himself. 
There was nothing for them to do but to march back 
home minus their trophies of war. 

In 1780, the Wisconsin Indians — Fox, Sauk, 
Winnebago and Menominee — joined the Sioux to 
aid some forty British traders in an attack upon the 
Spanish post at St. Louis. ^ But the expedition failed, 
partly because of the promptness of the Spanish 
governor at New Orleans in making counter attacks 
on the English posts in the South, and partly, it is 
said, because of the counsels of Clark, who was at 
Cahokia when the expedition arrived. Colonel Vigo, 
of the St. Louis post, was a friend of Clark's, even 
furnishing him a large loan to aid the American 
cause. The Indians went back home, a second time 
disappointed in their desire to decorate their belts 
with white men's scalps. 

Clark naturally wished to finish the work thus far 
so successful by marching to Detroit, the last strong- 

1 France had secretly ceded the tei'ritory west of the Mississippi to 
Spain in 1762. In 1779, Spain as well as France had declared war 
against England. 



166 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

hold of the British in the Northwest, but a sufficient 
number of men could not be induced to undertake the 
expedition. 

Bitterly disappointed, he yet continued to serve 
his country. But good fortune seemed to desert him. 
He failed in a number of midertakings, the state of 
Virginia was ungrateful to him, old age and sick- 
ness came upon him, drink became his master, and 
he went to his grave "unwept, unhonored and un- 
sung.'' He had almost doubled the domain of the 
Stars and Stripes, he had won a territory of unsur- 
passed richness of soil, minerals and forest, and he 
reaped the reward that so many unselfish heroes 
before and since have reaped — ingratitude and 
neglect. 

Wlien the treaty of peace was made in 1783, the 
English envoys, contending that the territory of the 
Northwest was a part of Canada,^ did not want to 
yield to the demands of the Americans that it should 
be given to their country as conquered territory. But 
the diplomacy of Franklin, Jay and Adams secured 
what Clark had won, and the Northwest Territory 
became an integral part of the United States of 
America, her first acquired possession. 

^ It had been made so for purposes of government by the Quebec Act 
of 1774. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE NOETHWEST— 1780-1787 

When the treaty of peace was signed with Great 
Britain in 1783, the United States succeeding in 
maintaining her right to the land known as the 
Northwest Territory, there had already been many 
disputes in the new nation regarding the ownership 
of the territory. , 

These disputes grew out of the lack of knowledge 
of the geography of the new continent at the time 
of settlement and the consequent carelessness and 
looseness in the charter grants made to the different 
companies promoting settlement. Because of the 
belief that the continent was but a comparatively 
narrow strip of land' bounded east and west by the 
two oceans, the king's grant in 1609 to the London 
Company, which settled Virginia, concluded with the 
words, ^'and all that Space and Circuit of Land 
Lying from the Sea-coast of the Precinct aforesaid 
up into the land throughout, from Sea to Sea, West 
and Northwest." 

The grant to the Plymouth Company in 1620, after 
specifying the parallels of latitude Avhich should 

1 This belief seemed to prevail even later, in spite of the fact that the 
Tlymonth Company informed the homo government in 1635 that the 
continent was three thousand miles wide. 

167 



168 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 




CONFLICT OF CLAIMS TO THE NORTHWEST 



bound it on the north and south, concluded, "and 
within all the Breadth aforesaid, throughout all the 
Maine (main) Lands from Sea to Sea." 

When the Plymouth Council in 1629 made a grant 
to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the land granted 
was to extend west in a direct line as far as the 
Pacific Ocean, and a similar concession was made to 
the Connecticut Com|iany in 1662 by Charles IT. 
New York had no charter rights which entitled 



THE NOKTHWEST 169 

her to claim land to the westward, but nevertheless 
she had her claim. She asserted her right to the 
Ohio valley on the basis that she had acquired the 
Iroquois rights to the valley when she assumed a 
protectorate over that nation. 

Virginia supported her charter claim with Colonel 
Clark's achievements, asserting her right to the 
whole domain north of the Ohio, and Kentucky also, 
through military conquest. 

A glance at the map will show how Virginia, New 
York, Massachusetts and Connecticut were claim- 
ing the whole or parts of the same territory, and 
that trouble was certain to come if a compromise 
was not effected. 

When the Articles of Confederation were under 
consideration, this conflict of claims was one of the 
obstacles to their adoption. Maryland, Pennsyl- 
vania, Delaware, Rhode Island and New Jersey, 
realizing that they were shut out from westward 
expansion, were jealous of the other more fortunate 
states. Maryland was especially obstinate, contend- 
ing with justice that none of the states had any valid 
title to the land, and urging that it be made part of 
the national domain. In fact, she utterly refused to 
join the Confederation until New York had ceded 
her claims to the national government and the other 
states had expressed a willingness so to do. 

New York set the example of unselfishness in 1780, 
and after Congress had made an appeal to the other 



170 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



states to follow her example, Virginia yielded all but 
Kentucky in 1784 ; Massachusetts gave up her terri- 
tory in 1785-6, and Connecticut hers in 1786, all 
except a portion one hundred twenty miles long- 
south of Lake Erie, 
since known as the 
Western Reserve. 

Thus did the ter- 
ritory bounded by 
the Ohio, the Mis- 
sissippi and the 
Great Lakes become 
national d o m ain, 
and one obstacle 
to a more perfect 
union of the states 
was removed. 

The t e r ri t ory 
thus acquired must 
now be organized 
and provisions 
made for its gov- 
ernment. From 1784 to 1787 many plans were pro- 
posed, among them one by Thomas Jefferson which 
provided that the territory should be divided into 
ten new states. The names of these states were 
suggested in the plan — some from the Latin, some 
from the Greek, and some Latinized forms of the 
Indian names for the rivers. 




POLYPOTAI 



JEFFKKSOX'S DIVISIOX OF THE 
NORTHWEST TEKRITORY 



THE NOETHWEST 171 

Slavery was to be prohibited after 1800. This pro- 
vision was stricken out of the plan, as were the high- 
sounding names. With these omissions, it was 
adopted l)y the Continental Congress. 

This plan remained in force until 1787, when a 
new one, the Ordinance of 1787, was drawn up by 
Nathan Dale of Massachusetts, assisted by Dr. Ma- 
nasseli Cutler, pastor for fifty-two years of the Con- 
gregational Church in Ipswich Hamlet, later 
Hamilton, Massachusetts. 

The latter was the agent of the Ohio Company, 
the object of which was to found a settlement in the 
West. Dr. Cutler went to New York, where Congress 
was sitting, to buy land for the company. 

Congress was anxious to sell the land in order to 
lessen the enormous debt under which the new nation 
was struggling. The new colony would serve as a 
defense against the Indians and the Spanish on the 
west. There was abundant reason, therefore, why 
the suggestions of Dr. Cutler, who came to buy a 
possible million and a half acres of land, should 
receive attention. He would make no purchase until 
the ordinance suited him. The clauses forbidding 
slavery and encouraging education were directly due 
to his influence. Indeed, it is quite probable that to 
this noble man is due the credit of these words in the 
ordinance : 

^'Eeligion, morality and knowledge being neces- 
sary to the good government and the happiness of 



17:2 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

mankind, schools and the means of education shall 
forever be encouraged." 

The Ordinance of 1787, as finally adopted by Con- 
gress and immediately put into effect, is classed 
among the great documents of our history, taking- 
rank with the Declaration of Independence and the 
Emancipation Proclamation. Some one has well 
called it the Magna Charta of the Northwest. Daniel 
Webster says, "I doubt whether one single law of 
any lawgiver, ancient or modern, has produced 
effects of more distinct, marked and lasting character 
than the Ordinance of 1787." 

It furnished the basis for all subsequent 
organization of territories. 

Its clause forbidding slavery is substantially the 
thirteenth amendment of the national Constitution. 

Keligious freedom was guaranteed. 

The number of states to be made out of this terri- 
tory was fixed as no more than five and no less than 
three. 

When the number of inhabitants of any of the five 
possible sections should reach sixty thousand, the 
state might be organized and representatives sent to 
Congress. 

This ordinance was one of the last acts of the 
Continental Congress. The trials and failure of this 
body had been many, but this one act saved it from 
ol)livion. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE TAKING OF PRAIKIE DU CHIEN— 1814 

The year 1811 was marked by another uprising 
among the Indians of the Northwest, this time led 
by Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, and his brother, 
called the Prophet. Actuated by the fear that the 
white men were destined to secure all the hunting- 
grounds of the Indians — a fear based on the many 
treaties that the Americans were negotiating, one by 
one, with different chiefs — Tecumseh, that wise and 
crafty statesman, formed a confederacy to resist 
such encroachment and spoliation by making it neces- 
sary for a nation to gain the consent of all the other 
nations before it could dispose of any land. 

The confederacy formed was a formidable one, but 
it came to naught through the Prophet's disobedi- 
ence of orders. Tecumseh was in the South among 
the Cherokees, and he had ordered the Prophet not 
to open hostilities while he was away. But, unheed- 
ing, the Prophet attacked the Americans under Gen- 
eral Harrison at Tippecanoe. The Indians were 
completely routed. Among these Indians were scat- 
tered bands from Wisconsin — Chippewas, Pottawat- 
tomies, Sacs, Foxes and Winnebagoes. 

This defeat weakened the confederacy so that it 

173 



2<j'4 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

was no longer feared. When war was declared 
against England in 1812, Tecumseli and the Prophet 
joined the enemy, seeking thus a chance to wreak 
their vengeance on the liated Americans. 

As yet, Wisconsin was more English than Amer- 
ican. Her savages and citizens alike fought in the 
ranks of the English, and nearly every Wisconsin 
fur-trader held a commission in the British army. 

But Wisconsin was far removed from the seat of 
war : hence her part in the actual conflict was small. 
One engagement alone took place on her soil, and 
this was not until the last year of the war. 

In 1813, Governor Clark^ of Missouri Territory, 
commandant of the upper Mississippi country, be- 
coming impressed with the importance of controlling 
the Fox- Wisconsin waterway if he would protect the 
Mississippi settlements, sent Lieut. Joseph Perkins 
with one hundred fifty soldiers and volunteers on a 
gunboat to garrison Prairie du Chien. 

This place was a favorite resort of traders, a few 
of whom welcomed the Americans. But most of them 
were British in their sympathies. One of these, 
Robert Dickson, a red-haired Scot, fled as the Amer- 
icans approached, carrying to Mackinac the news of 
their coming. 

The little ^'Dog Town," as the British called it, 
was soon fortified, and the Stars and Stripes for the 
first time floated on the Wisconsin breeze. The fort 

1 Governor Clark was a brother of George Rogers Clark of Virginia. 



THE TAKING OF PEAIRIE DU CHI EX 175 

was named Fort Shelby. Perkins divided his forces, 
sending- one half to man the gnnhoat anchored in 
midstream and keeping the other half to defend the 
fort. 

During the ensuing wim'ej.*, the British officers at 
Mackinac and Green Bay were drilling recruits, and 
the red-haired trader, a man of unbounded influence 
among the Indians, was enlisting the savages to 
drive out the hated Long Knives, as the Americans 
were still called. Two companies were formed, the 
Michigan Fencibles and the Mississippi Volunteers. 

These, with five or six hundred savage allies gath- 
ered from the Mackinac, Green Bay and Porta^lB 
regions, set out gaily for the attack, in June, 1814. 
They made a striking picture. 

"With the smart caps and sashes and fringed 
coats of the woodsmen, the crude blue and yellow 
and red of the Mackinaw-suited habitans, the red 
and blue and shining brass of the Fencibles, and the 
many-hued blankets of the befeathered and ochre- 
daubed aborigines, this himian mosaic slowly pro- 
ceeded through the glistening flood, hoping to capture 
and hold Wisconsin for His Britannic Majesty."^ 

On Sunday morning, July 17, 1814, this motley 
company was drawn up in front of Fort Shelby, 
much to the astonishment of the garrison. Within 
half an hour a messenger from Lieutenant Colonel 
McKay, head of the attacking forces, advanced in 

1 Reuben Gold Thwaites. 



176 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

front of the lines, bearing a flag of truce. He handed 
the following letter to Captain Perkins : 

Old Fort, Prairie du Chien, July 17, 1814. 
Sir — An hour after the receipt of this, surrender to His Majesty's 
forces under my command, unconditionally, or otherwise I order you 
to defend yourself to the last man. The humanity of a British officer 
obliges me (in case you should be obstinate) '^to request you will 
send out of the way your women and children. I am, sir, 
Your very humble servant, 

W. McKay, 
Lt. Col. Commanding the Expedition. 

The answer was not difficult to understand: 

Fort Shelby, July 17, 1814. 
Sir — I received your polite note and prefer the latter, and am 
determined to defend to the last man. Yours, &c., 

Jos. Perkins, 
Capt. Commanding United States Troops. 

In his account of the attack sent to his superior 
at Mackinac, Lieutenant Colonel McKay says : ''My 
intention was not to have made an attack till next 
morning at daylight, but it being impossible to con- 
trol the Indians, I ordered our gun to play upon the 
gunboat, which she did with a surprising good effect, 
for in the course of three hours, the time the action 
lasted, she fired eighty-six rounds, two-thirds of 
which went into the Governor Clark.^ They kept up 
a constant fire on us, both from the boat and the 
fort ; we were about an hour between two fires, hav- 
ing run our gun up within musket shot of the fort, 
from whence we beat the boat out of her station. 
She cut her cable and ran down the current and 
sheltered under an island." 

iThe Governor Clark ; the American gunboat 



THE TAKING OF PEAIRIE DU CHIEN 177 

The attack on the fort was more successful, but 
need not so have been had the Americans known 
that the English were reduced to the last round of 
ammunition. Just as Colonel McKay was about to 
order the last six rounds for the cannon heated red 
hot and shot into the fort in the hope of setting fire 
to it, the white flag of surrender was put out. 

Captain Perkins's note of surrender demanded 
that they be given the honors of war, and that they be 
protected from the savagery of the Indians. Colonel 
McKay promised both, and these promises he kept, 
though with great difficulty, for the Indians were 
very loath to forego the pleasures of scalping and 
torturing. 

McKay's lot in pacifying the irritated savages 
was by no means a pleasant one, as he himself 
relates : 

' ' I am sorry to be under the necessity of reproach- 
ing some of the Indians, but Puants' particularly, 
for shameful depredations committed during the 
action of the 17th and since. Many of them [the 
Puants], in place of meeting the enemy immediately 
on their arrival ran off to the farms, killed the 
inhabitants' cattle and pillaged their houses even to 
the covering off their beds, and leaving many with- 
out a second shirt to put on their backs. Even in 
the village they did the same outrages, breaking to 
pieces what they could not carry away. 

^ Puants : Winnebagoes. 



178 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

*'The Sioux, Soteux,' Court Oreilles' and part of 
the Follavoines,' though perfectl}^ useless, obeyed 
my orders pretty well, but the Puants behaved in a 
most villainous manner, and were I permitted to 
decide their fate should never receive a shilling's 
worth of presents from Government, on the contrary 
I would cut them off to a man. They despise the 
idea of receiving orders from an officer that does 
not hold a blanket in one hand and a piece of pork 
in the other to pay them to listen to what he may 
have to say, audaciously saying they are under no 
obligations to us, but they have themselves preserved 
the country. The moment they had finished pillaging 
and got their share of the prize they marched off, 
except about ten men, who are this instant in the act 
of cutting up the green wheat, which if they do not 
desist I shall be obliged to confine them in the fort, 
not only for the good of the citizens but for our own 
safety, as provisions will be very scarce till after 
harvest. ' ' 

The Americans were said to have had five men 
killed and thirteen wounded. The garrison were 
given back their arms and sent down the Mississippi 
to St. Louis. 

Thus after but a few months the American flag- 
was lowered, and again the British ensign waved 
over the fort, its name now changed to Fort McKay. 

1 Soteux : Chippewas. Court Oreilles (Short Ears): Ottawas. 
Follavoines : Menominees. 



THE TAKING OF PRAIRIE DU CHIEN 179 

The colonel returned to Mackinac, leaving the fort 
in charge of a trader, Anderson by name, but he was 
soon superseded by Captain Bulger, a regular officer. 

Peace was declared between Great Britain and the 
United States December 24, 181-1-. As the news did 
not reach Washington until two months later, it is 
not surprising that the little frontier post did not 
hear of it until near the last of May of the next 
year. 

Upon receipt of the news, Captain Bulger immedi- 
ately wrote to Governor Clark that he proposed to 
evacuate the post the next day, not even waiting for 
the Americans to come to take possession. His 
avowed reason for such unseemly haste was that he 
feared the presence of both British and American 
troops in the fort would bring on a fresh rupture 
with the Indians. 

The British flag was lowered, never again to be 
raised over Wisconsin. For uncounted years the 
Red Man had been the master of the soil. For a 
century and quarter the fleur de lis of France had 
waved undisturbed over forest and stream. For half 
a century more the royal standard of England had 
floated on the breeze, a large portion of that time 
in defiance of treaties and promises. Now, at last, 
the red, white and blue proclaims that our soil is 
American and free. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE STORY OF RED BIRD— 1827 

Aftee the second war with Great Britain had left 
the United States in full possession of the Northwest 
Territory, the Americans began to crowd into the 
lead regions of northwestern Illinois and southeast- 
ern Wisconsin. Previous to this, none but French- 
men, and few of these, had the Indians permitted 
to enter. 

But the Americans, with the push and energy 
that has always characterized them, were not to be 
kept out longer. In 1822 a great impetus was given 
toward the lead country by the glowing accounts 
that appeared in the St. Louis papers. The new- 
comers were mainly from Kentucky, Tennessee and 
Missouri.^ 

The Indians were sullen but powerless. The In- 
dian agent at Prairie du Chien, Joseph Street, wrote 
to Governor Edwards of Illinois : 

^'The Indians (Winnebagoes) complained of the 

1 On the approach of winter many of the miners, especially those from 
niinois, went to their homes, to return the following spring. They thus 
came to he called "Suckers" from the hahits of the fish of that name, 
which go south when cold vv'cather comes. The miners from the East, 
on the other hand, were forced to remain m the neighborhood of the 
mines during the winter months. They housed themselves as ^est they 
could, often in rude dug-outs, and because of this they were called after 
the badger, which burrows in the ground. Thus Wisconsin came to be 
known as the Badger State and Illinois as the Sucker State. 

180 



THE STOEY OF RED BIRD 181 

trespass of the miners. No notice was taken of it, 
and the diggings progressed. The Indians attempted 
force, which was repelled, and very angry feelings 
produced. ' ' 

In October, 1826, the garrison of Fort Crawford 
(Prairie dn Chien) was ordered to go to Fort Snell- 
ing, near Minneapolis. They took with them two 
Winnebago prisoners who were held for theft. The 
next spring a rumor came that these two prisoners 
had been handed over to their enemies, the Chip- 
pewas, and forced by the latter to run the gauntlet, 
which had resulted in their death. The story was 
not true, but the Winnebagoes believed it. 
^ Near the present village of Trempealeau was the 
town of a Winnebago chief, Eed Bird by name. The 
report of the killing of the prisoners at Fort Snelling 
was brought to him one night. Certain Indians came 
with it to him, saying: 

"You have become a by-word of reproach among 
us; you have just given the Chippewas reason to 
laugh at you,' and the Big Knives also laugh at you. 
Lo! while they were among you, they dared not 
offend you, but now they have caused Wa-man-goos- 
ga-ra-ha and his companion to be put to death, and 
they have cut their bodies into pieces not bigger 
than the spots in a bead garter.'^ 

From this time on, though previously friendly to 

1 Red Bird had just returned from an unsuccessful expedition against 
the Chippewas, and he was sullen and discontented. 



;^go THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

the Americans, Red Bird was their deadly enemy. 
The simple creed of the Indian was not a life for a 
life, but two lives for one. Red Bird at once set out 
with two companions, We-kau (the Sun) and Chick- 
hon-sic (the Buffalo Calf) to exact of the whites the 
penalty for their supposed crime. 

The three Indians paddled to Prairie du Chien, 
where they waited upon the Indian agent in the most 
friendly manner, and Red Bird begged to be regarded 
as one of the staunchest friends of the Americans. 
The agent admitted his claim, but absolutely refused 
to give him any whisky. Then Red Bird went to a 
trader in the town, Avho, relying upon the general 
good character of the chief, furnished him with eight 
gallons of spirits to be paid for the next autumn. 

Red Bird and his two companions then went to the 
house of a farmer named Gagnier, ostensibly as 
friends. Gagnier invited his savage visitors to enter, 
hung the kettle over the fire, gave them to eat, and 
smoked the pipe of peace with them. He considered 
Red Bird the last man on earth to be feared, for he 
and the Winnebago chief were well acquainted and 
had interchanged friendly services. The Indians 
remained several hours under Gagnier ^s roof. Then 
suddenly Red Bird leveled his gun and shot the un- 
suspecting farmer dead on his own hearthstone. At 
the same instant the hired man, an old soldier, was 
shot by We-kau. Mrs. Gagnier was too quick for 
the murderers. She seized a gun, leveled it at We- 



THE STOEY OF RED BIRD 183 

kau, and thus held him at bay while she made her 
escape. As she was about to leap through the win- 
dow, her eight-months-old baby girl, whom she held 
in her arms, was torn from her by We-kau, stabbed, 
scalped, and thrown violently on the floor, apparently 
dead/ Her ten-year-old son escaped. 

The excitement caused in the village by Mrs. Gag- 
nier's terrible story was increased the next day by 
the news that two keel boats returning from Fort 
Snelling had been attacked by Eed Bird's warriors 
at the mouth of the Bad Axe River, and three men 
killed and four wounded. 

The villagers hastened to the old fort and franti- 
cally began to repair it. Women as well as men 
piled up the earth around the logs of the fort, and 
the women were drilled with the men in the use of 
the musket. 

Lewis Cass, Governor of Michigan Territory, of 
which Wisconsin was then a part, had already heard 
rumors of the hostility of the Indians toward the 
whites. He says : 

''I went to Green Bay, where I took a canoe with 
twelve voyagers and went up the Fox River and 
passed over the Portage into the Wisconsin. We 
went down the Wisconsin until we met an ascending- 
boat in tbe charge of Ramsay Crooks, who was long 
a resident of the Northwest. Here we ascertained 
that the Winnebagoes had assumed a hostile attitude 

1 The child did not die. Some of her descendants are yet living Iv 
Prairie du Chien. 



184 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

and that the settlers of Prairie du Chien were 
apprehensive of being suddenly attacked and 
massacred/' 

Messengers were sent to Galena, Illinois, and to 
Fort Snelling to ask for aid. In a few days a hun- 
dred volunteers from the former place and portions 
of four companies from the latter quieted the alarm 
of the settlers. The commanding officer, Colonel 
Snelling, ordered an attack on Eed Bird's village, 
but as the volunteers refused to obey and made up 
their minds to return home, he was obliged to 
withdraw his order. 

The people in the lead mines region were in a 
terrible panic. Fully half of them fled the country. 
It was seen to be necessary to overawe and punish 
tlie Indians to prevent them from committing other 
depredations. As a result of the efforts of Governor 
Cass, General Atkinson was ordered north from 
Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, to co-operate 
with Major Wliistler, who was to take a force from 
Fort Howard, on Green Bay, the object of the expe- 
dition being to capture those who had committed 
the murders at Prairie du Chien and prevent any 
further acts of the same nature. 

The Winnebagoes had been informed, through a 
messenger sent out by Colonel Snelling, that unless 
they surrendered the murderers within ten days, fL\(.' 
Indians of their tribe then held there as prisoners 
would be shot. 



THE STORY OF RED BIRD 185 

On the last day General Atkinson arrived with his 
troops. The murderers had not yet been brought 
in, but he countermanded the order for the death 
of the Indians, and permitted them to repair to their 
homes. 

General Atkinson then set out up the Wisconsin, 
meeting Major Whistler at the Fox- Wisconsin 
portage in early September, 1827. 

Shortly after their arrival at the portage, one 
of the officers, Colonel McKenney, was seated at 
the door of his tent. He thus narrates what took 
place : 

"I was sitting at the door of my tent, when an 
Indian of common appearance, with, nothing over 
him but a blanket, came up to the bluff, and, walking 
to the tent, seated himself upo.n his haunches beside 
it. This was almost the middle of the daj^ I in- 
quired, through an interpreter, what was the object 
of his visit. 

"After musing a while, he said, 'Do not strike; 
when the sun is there to-morrow' — looking up and 
pointing to about three o'clock in the afternoon — 
' they will come in. ' 

'' 'Who will come in?' I asked. 

' ' ' Red Bird and We-kau, ' he answered. 

' ' The moment he gave the answer he rose, wrapped 
his blanket about him, and with hurried step returned 
by the way he had come. 

"At about three o'clock of the same day, another 



18g THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

Indian came and took liis position in nearly the same 
place, and in the same way, and, to like questions, 
he gave like answers. 

"At sundown, a third came, confirming what the 
other two had said, with the addition that he had, 
to secure that object, given to the families of the 
murderers nearly all his property. 

"At about noon of the day following, there were 
seen descending a mound on the portage a body of 
Indians — some moimted, some on foot. By the aid 
of a glass, we could see that they were coming toward 
us and that they had three flags — two, one in front 
and one in the rear, were American, and one in the 
center was white. They bore no arms. 

"In the course of half an hour, they had ap- 
proached near enough so that we heard a singing. 
Those who were familiar with the air said, 'It is a 
death song.' 

"When still nearer, some present, who knew him, 
said, 'It is Ked Bird singing his death song.' 

' ' The advance of the Indians had reached half up 
the ascent of the bluff on which was our encampment. 
In the lead was Kar-a-mau-nee, Walking Turtle, a 
distinguished chief. Eeaching the level, and order 
being called, Kar-a-mau-nee spoke, saying: 'They 
are here — like braves they have come in — treat them 
as braves — do not put them in arms. ' 

"All eyes were fixed upon Red Bird ; and well they 
might be, for of all the Indians I ever saw, he is, 



THE STORY OF RED BIRD 187 

without exception, the most perfect in form, in face 
and gesture. 

"In height he is about six feet, straight but with- 
out restraint. His proportions are of the most exact 
symmetry. His very fingers are models of beauty. 
I never beheld a face that was so full of all the en- 
nobling and at the same time the most winning 
expression. During my attempted analysis of his 
face, I could not but ask myself, 'Can this man be 
a murderer? Is he the same who shot, scalped and 
cut the throat of Gagnierf 

''His face was painted, one side red, and the other 
intermixed with green and white. Around his neck 
he wore a collar of blue wampum, beautifully mixed 
with white, while the claws of the panther, or wild- 
cat, distant from each other about one-quarter inch, 
with their points inward, formed the rim of the 
collar. Around his neck were hanging strands of 
wampum of different lengths, the circles enlarging 
as they descended. 

*'He was clothed in a new and beautiful deer- 
skin, almost pure white. It consists of a jacket, the 
sleeve being cut to fit his finely-formed arm, and so 
as to leave outside of the seam that ran from the 
shoulder, back of the arm, and along the elbow, about 
six inches of the material, one-half of which was cut 
into fringe, the same kind of fringe ornamenting the 
collar of the jacket, its sides, bosom, and termina- 
tion, which was not circular, but cut in points, and 



188 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

wliicli also ran down the seams of the leggins, these 
being made of the same material. Blue beads were 
employed to vary and enrich the fringe on the 
leggins. On his feet he wore moccasins. 

"A piece of scarlet cloth abont one-qnarter yard 
deep and double that width, a slit being cut in its 
middle so as to admit of the passing through of his 
head, rested, one-half on his breast and the other 
on his back. 

' ' On one shoulder and near his breast was a beauti- 
fully ornamented feather, nearly white, and about 
opposite, on the other shoulder, was another feather, 
nearly black. On the tip of one shoulder was a tuft 
of horsehair dyed red and a little curled, mixed up 
with ornaments. 

'^Across his breast, diagonally, was his war-pipe. 
In one of his hands he held the white flag, and in 
the other the calumet, or pipe of peace. 

''There he stood. Not a muscle moved, nor was 
the expression of his face changed a particle. Ac- 
cording to Indian law, he had done no wrong. His 
law demanded 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for 
a tooth.' As to death, he had been taught to 
despise it. 

"He and We-kau were told to sit down. Every- 
thing was still. It was, indeed, a moment of intense 
interest to all. Our officer spoke to them, telling 
them, among other things, that they had done well 
thus to come in. 



THE STORY OF RED BIRD 189 

^^Red Bird then stood up, the commanding officer, 
Major Whistler, a few paces in front of the center 
of the line, facing him. After a moment's pause 
and a quick survey of the troops and a composed 
observation of his people, he spoke, looking at Major 
Whistler, saying, ^7 am ready T 

''Then, advancing a step or two, he paused, saying, 
'I do not wish to be put in irons. Let me be free. 
I have given away my life — it is gone' (stooping 
and taking some dust between his finger and thumb, 
and blowing it away) 'like that' (eying the dust as 
it fell and vanished from his sight), then adding, 'I 
would not take it back. It is gone/ 

"Having thus spoken, he threw his hands behind 
him and marched briskly up to Major Whistler, 
breast to breast. The Major stepped aside, and Red 
Bird and We-kau marched through the line of sol- 
diers drawn up, to a l3nt provided for them in the 
rear; and a guard was set over them. Their comrades 
then left by the way they had come. 

"We-kau, the miserable-looking being, the accom- 
plice of Red Bird, was in all things the opposite of 
that unfortunate brave. The one seemed a prince, 
born to command and worthy to be obeyed ; the other, 
as if born to be hanged. Meager, cold, dirty in his 
person and dress, crooked in form, like the starved 
wolf, gaunt, hungry and bloodthirsty, — his entire 
appearance indicated the presence of a spirit wary, 
cruel and treacherous. This is the man who could 



190 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

scalp a child not eleven months old, and, in taking 
off its fine locks as a trophy and to exhibit as a scalp, 
cut the back of its neck to the l)one and leave it to 
languish and die on the floor near its murdered 
father. But his hands and crooked and miserable- 
looking fingers had been accustomed to such bloody- 
work. 

"Red Bird did not appear to be thirty years old, 
and yet he is said to be past forty. We-kau looks 
to be forty-five, and is no doubt as old as that.'" 

The prisoners were sent to Prairie du Chien for 
trial. They were tried and convicted, although dur- 
ing the trial Red Bird repeatedly protested against 
the whole proceedings as, in his estimation, cowardly 
and unworthy a great nation. The Indian never 
could understand the tardy justice of the white man. 
The" slow process of a trial was to him a mystery 
and a cause of contempt. Scarcely in any instance 
would an Indian deny an act which he had committed, 
and he did not understand why punishment should 
not be immediately inflicted. The imprisonment of 
the body was to him an insufferable grievance, and 
he looked upon the act as cowardice on the part of 
the whites, presuming that they dare not inflict such 
punishment as the crime demanded. 

The trial reached its close and the prisoners were 
condemned by Judge Doty to be hanged December 
26, 1828. 

^ Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume V. 



THE STORY OF RED BIRD igi 

Red Bird, unused to captivity, sickened and died 
in prison. The other two murderers^ were pardoned 
by President John Quincy Adams in November, 1828. 
One of the implied conditions of the pardon was 
that the Indians should cede to the government 
the lands the miners had already appropriated to 
their own use. At the treaty that was made in 
Prairie du Chien in 1829, Mrs. Gagnier was given 
two sections of land and the government agreed to 
pay her fifty dollars per annum for fifteen years, 
this sum to be deducted from the annual sum paid 
to the AVinnebagoes for their land. 

Thus ended the uprising of Eed Bird and his 
AYinnel)agoes. 



^ In the accounts of Red Bird's uprising-, Chick-hon-sic is men- 
tioned but twice — first, as having gone to Gagnier's house with the 
other two, and secondly, as having been tried for murder, convicted, 
and pardoned, at the same time as We-kau. 



CHAPTER XVI 

EARLY SETTLEMENTS 

Although emigration westward was now encouraged, 
for the reasons already named, movement into the 
Northwest was not so rapid as it would have been had 
not England continued in actual possession of the 
territory in defiance of the treaty of 1783. Even 
after Jay's treaty, 1794, had secured the promise 
that the country would be evacuated, the posts still 
held there showed that execution followed slow upon 
promise. In fact, it was not until the close of the 
War of 1812 that the Redcoat disappeared from 
active participation in the affairs of this territory. 
From this time on, the country was rapidly settled. 

Owing to its geographical position, Wisconsin was 
naturally the last of the five states carved out of the 
Northwest Territory to reap the benefit of this west- 
ward movement. Its population was still largely 
Canadian French and half-breeds, intermarriage 
with Indian women being very common among the 
fur-traders. 

We have already spoken of the beginnings of 
Green Bay, when the Langlades first made it their 
home, 1763-4. Twenty years afterward, that is, in 
1785, there were yet only seven families residing 

192 



EAELY SETTLEMENTS 



193 



there. These were French, and numbered tliirty- 
five souls, including domestics and four Pawnee 
slaves. That its subsequent growth was slow, we 
may gather from the fact that in 1831 there were 
])ut a hundred houses scattered over it, nearly an 
equal number on each 
side of the Fox River. 

Prairie du Chien, the 
second oldest town in the 
state, had all the geo- 
graphical advantages of 
position. Located at the 
mouth of the great Wis- 
consin, it was the natural 
gathering-place of Red 
Men and traders ; and 
yet no permanent homes 
were established here 
until 1781, when three 
Frenchmen elected it 
as their abiding-place.' 

In 1805-6, the town proper consisted of "eighteen 
dwelling-houses in two streets; sixteen in Front 
Street and two in First Street. These, with other 
houses in the rear of the pond and scattered round 
the country, at the distance of one, two, three and 
five miles, together with "three houses on the west 




SOLOMON JUNEAU 



que^t 



•],p,.p o..p oniiier dates claimerl ior the settlement, but they arp 



194 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

side of the Mississippi, made, in the village and 
vicinity, thirty-seven houses, which it will not be too 
much to calculate at ten persons each, the population 
being about three hundred seventy souls. ''^ 

In 1811, an Indian agent stationed at this settle- 
ment writes thus to the Secretary of War : 

*'The village contains between thirty and forty 
houses, and on the tract just mentioned about thirty- 
two families, so that the whole settlement contains 
about one hundred families. The men are generally 
French Canadians, who have mostly married Indian 
wives ; perhaps not more than twelve white females 
are to be found in the settlement. 

*^ These people attend to the cultivation of their 
lands, which are extremely fertile. They raise con- 
siderable quantities of surplus produce, particularly 
wheat and corn. They annually dispose of about 
eighty thousandweight of flour to the traders and 
Indians, besides great quantities of meal, and the 
quantity of surplus produce would be greatly in- 
creased if a suitable demand existed for it. All kinds 
of vegetables flourish in great perfection, and such 
is the beauty of the climate that the coimtry begins 
to attract the attention of settlers. Different fruit 
trees have lately been planted and promise to grow 
well. 

'^Prairie des Chiens is surrounded by numerous 
Indian tribes, who wholly depend on it for their 

1 Pike's Expedition, 1805-6. 



EARLY SETTLEMENTS ■ 195 

supplies. It is annually visited by at least six thou- 
sand Indians, and hitherto they have resorted to the 
Canadian traders for goods, because our own appre- 
hended much danger in attempting to carry on a 
trade with them, particularly as the Canadians gen- 
erally prevail on the Indians either to plunder them 
or to drive them away. Only one trader of our 
town returned into that quarter last year. 

"Great danger, both to individuals and to the 
Government, is to be apprehended from the Cana- 
dian traders; they endeavor to incite the Indians 
against us ; partly to monopolize their trade and 
partly to secure friendship in case a war should 
break out between us and England. They are con- 
stantly making large presents to the Indians, which 
the latter consider as a sign of approaching war, 
and under this impression frequently apply to me 
for advice on the subject. Hitherto I have been 
able to keep them friendly. '^^ 

The following extract from a letter of Joseph 
Street, Winnebago agent at Prairie du Chien, to 
Governor Edwards of Illinois, gives an idea of 
conditions general in Wisconsin at this time: 

Prairie du Chien, Dec. 28, 1827. 
Dear Sir — The closing of the river appears absolutely to cut me 
off from any intercourse Avith the civilized world. I arrived here 
the first of Nov., since when -we have had one mail from below. 
I have not heard from my family since I left Saline. 'And have 
not rec'd one letter from below this place since we parted. From 
this, you will readily conclude I am quite uneasy. If it is not ira- 

- Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume XI. 



196 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

l)osing too iiiu.ch on your goodness I should like, at a leisure moment, 
to get a few lines from you. I feel some anxiety to hear also from 
Washington City, whether my appointment has been confirmed. T 
have no newspaper from Washington, and until I can get a paper 
sent on, 1 would acknowledge it as a great favor, if you would send 
me on one of your W. papers after reading it. Or the Richmond 
Enquirer, after you have retained it one week to read it, will be 
very new here then. 

Jacques Vieau, an agent for the Northwest Fur 
Company, is credited with being the first white set- 
tler in Milwaukee. In 1795, he established several 
posts on the shore of I^ake Michigan, and made his 
headquarters at Milwaukee. He continued to reside 
here during the winter for many years, then moved 
to Green Bay. Solomon Juneau, whom Milwaukee 
honors as her first citizen, was his clerk and son-in- 
law. He did not come to Milwaukee until 1818, and 
did not settle there until 1834, at which time four 
other settlers were also there. 

A son of Jacques Vieau thus describes his bridal 
trip from Green Bay to Milwaukee in 1837: 

"Our bridal trip was made across country to Mil- 
waukee on what was called a 'French train.' The 
sleigh was a deep box, six feet long by thirty-five 
inches broad, which slipped easily on the surface 
of the snow, when drawn by two horses tandem. 
There were, of course, no wagon roads in those days, 
but there were two regularly traveled trails to 
Milwaukee. 

''The one we took led first on a short cut southeast 
from Green Bay to Manitowoc. At Manitowoc 



EARLY SETTLEMENTS 



197 



Rapids, two and a half miles from the lake shore, 
the path turned almost due south, striking the mouth 
of Sheboygan River. Thence we would proceed 




COUNTIES OF WISCONSIN IN 1836 



up the lake, sometimes on the beach and again on 
the high land, for fifteen or sixteen miles; thence, 
west southwest to Saukville, a small Chippewa 



198 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

village, whose cliief was at that time Wahmetee- 
goosh (Little Frenchman) ; thence directly southeast 
to Milwaukee, striking the Kilbourn — now the 
Waukesha — road. 

^'This path between Green Bay and Milwaukee 
was originally an Indian trail, and very crooked; but 
the whites would straighten it by cutting across lots 
each winter with their jumpers, wearing bare streaks 
through the thin covering, to be followed in summer 
by foot and horseback travel along the shortened 
l^atli. 

'^The other trail was by way of Fond du Lac, 
taking advantage of the military road along the east 
shore of Lake Winnebago ; thence southwest to 
Watertown; thence east to Waukesha, and coming 
into Milwaukee on the Kilbourn road. The time 
occupied in traveling from Green Bay to Milwaukee 
was four days, either by foot or by French train, — 
the distance being estimated at 125 miles." 

AA^ien the territorial census was taken in 1836, 
only four counties in the state were enumerated — 
Brown, Iowa, Crawford and Milwaukee. The boun- 
daries of these counties are shown on page 197. 

This enumeration showed a population of nearly 
twelve thousand, Iowa having over five thousand. 
Brown and Milwaukee each nearly three thousand, 
and Crawford less than one thousand. 



CHAPTER XVII 

BLACK HAWK WAR— 1832 

The four years following the conclusion of tlie Win- 
nebago outbreak were years of growth and pros- 
perity in southern Wisconsin. Relieved from anxiety 
as to Indian attacks, the miners returned to the lead 
regions, and with them came many immigrants. 

But the interval of peace was short, and the war 
that followed was the bloodiest in the history of the 
state. This time it was not the Winnebagoes who 
led the uprising, but the Sauks, who from the close 
of the French war against them and the Foxes had 
occupied the east bank of the Mississippi from the 
Wisconsin to the Missouri, while the Foxes dwelt 
on the west bank. 

In 1804, the United States Government had con- 
cluded a treaty with these two tribes, according to 
which, for one thousand dollars paid annually, they 
ceded to the government about fifty million acres 
of land, comprising parts of Missouri, Illinois and 
Wisconsin. 

By the terms of this treaty, the Indians need not 
vacate the territory at once, but ^ ^ as long as the lands 
which are now ceded to the United States remain 
their territory [that is. until the government should 

199 



200 



THE MAKING OF -WISCONSIN 




CESSION OF 1804 



sell the lands to settlers], the Indians belonging to 
said tribes shall enjoy the privilege of living or 
hunting upon them." 

This unwise provision was the principal cause of 
the war which broke out in 1832. 



BLACK HAWK WAR 201 

Three miles from the mouth of the Eoek River 
and three miles south of the present city of Rock 
Island was one of the largest Indian towns on the 
continent, the chief village of the Sauk nation. The 
soil of that region was rich and the Indians raised 
abundant crops, cultivating a tract of about three 
thousand acres running parallel wdth the Mississippi. 
The village contained the principal cemetery of the 
Sauk nation. 

In 1767, there was born in this village one Ma-ka- 
tai-me-she-kia-kiak by name, or Black Sparrow 
Hawk, commonly called Black Haw^k. He was not 
a chief either by birth or by election, but he early 
became the leader of the village, not because he 
possessed great physical or intellectual advantages, 
for he had neither. 

He was the opposite of Red Bird in appearance, 
being short and spare. His features were pinched, 
his cheek-bones high even for an Indian, his fore- 
head full ; he had no eyebrows and little hair, it 
having been plucked out, all but the scalp-lock, which 
he ornamented with eagle feathers on occasions of 
ceremony ; his head was w^ell poised and his bearing 
dignified. 

He was restless and ambitious, a demagogue who 
secured followers by appealing to their passions. 
He was probably honest and sincere, but he was 
much influenced by the British agents at Maiden, 
Canada, to whom he went every year for presents 



202 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

of arms, ammunition, provisions and trinkets. With 
him on tbese trips went his British Band, so called, 
who served with him under Tecumseh on the side 
of the British in the War of 1812. Black Hawk 
was near that warrior when he fell in the Battle of 
the Thames, October, 1813. 

In the story of his life dictated by himself/ Black 
Hawk says that he would have taken no further part 
in the war after Tecumseh 's death had it not been 
for injuries inflicted upon an aged friend by the 
whites in the village on the Rock. Furious at this 
outrage, he continued his forays even after peace 
had been declared. It was not until May, 1816, that 
he signed a treaty of peace with the United States. 
He never ceased, however, to hate the Americans 
most cordially, and subsequent events proved that 
he had some right so to do. 

This treaty of 1816 ratified and confirmed the 
treaty of 1804. Black Hawk had not signed the 
first, but he did sign the second.^ Later, he pre- 
tended not to know what he had done, and denied 
the legality of all the treaties. 

In 1823, before the land about the Sauk village 
had been surveyed or much of it even explored, and 
while there was yet a belt of land fifty miles to the 

1 Life of Ma-ka-tai-me-sho-kia-kiak, or Blark Hawk, dictated by liimself 
(to Antoine le Claire, laalf-hreed. T'nited States interpreter, and edited by 
J. B. Patterson). It is dedicated to General Atkinson. 

2 "Black Hawk signed in all three treaties — St. Louis, May, 1816 ; St. 
Louis, September, 3 822. and Prairie du Chien. August. 1825, each of which 
reaffirmed the treaty of 1804." — Wisconsin Historical Collections. Volume 
XIL 



BLACK HAWK WAR 



303 



east, unsettled, squatters began taking possession. 
"Indian cornfields were fenced in, squaws and chil- 
dren were whipped for venturing beyond the bounds 
thus set, and lodges were burned over the heads 
of their occupants." 

Black Hawk often remonstrated with the white 
authorities, but the 
outrages continued 
and grew worse. He 
now began to ad- 
vance the claim that 
the site of the village 
had not been includ- 
ed in the cession of 
1804. He was encour- 
aged in this claim by 
the chief White Cloud, 
called the Prophet, 
half Winnebago and 
half Sauk, whose 
village was thirty- 
five miles up the 
Rock; also by the 
British agent at Mai- 
den, and others, to all of whom Black Hawk told 
his story. He thus justifies himself: 

"I heard there was a great chief on the AVabash, 
and sent a party to get his advice. They informed 
him that we had not sold our village. He assured 




BLACK HAWK 



204 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

them, then, that if we had not sold the land on which 
our village stood, our Great Father [the President 
of the United States] would not take it from us. 

"I started early to see the chief [British agent] 
of my British Father [King of England], and told 
him my story. He gave the same reply that the chief 
on the Wabash had given. ... I next called on 
the great chief at Detroit and made the same state- 
ment to him that I had made to the chief of our 
British Father. He gave me the same advice. . . . 
This assured me that I was right, and determined 
me to hold out as I had promised our people." 

After an unsuccessful hunt in the spring of 1830, 
Black Hawk and his band returned to their village 
to find it almost destroyed, many of the graves dese- 
crated by the plowshare, and the whites defiant of 
the Indians and their claims. There is no doubt 
that the whites, who had pre-empted these lands and 
acquired legal title by settlement, were violating the 
spirit of the treaty of 1804, which contemplated the 
gradual settlement of the land westwardly. As 
before stated, there was yet fifty miles of unoccupied 
territory between the Mississippi and the settle- 
ments. In the ordinary progress of settlement, this 
would have allowed the Sauks to remain many years 
longer on the land. 

Black Hawk, angry at the injustice done them, 
hurried to Maiden to tell his tale to sympathetic 
ears. He was here assured of the justice of his 



BLACK HAWK WAR 205 

claim, as he was, also, when he stopped at the 
Prophet's town on his way home. 

On ills return to the village in the spring of 1831, 
being warned away by the whites, he in turn gave 
warning that if they did not leave he would use 
force. He says : 

"I now determined to put a stop to it by clearing 
our country of the intruders. I went to the principal 
men and told them that they must and should leave 
our country, and gave them until the middle of the 
next day to remove in. The most left within the 
time appointed, — but the one w^io remained repre- 
sented that his family (which was large) would be 
in a starving condition if he went away and left 
his crop, and promised to behave well if I would 
consent to let him remain until fall in order to secure 
his crop. He spoke reasonably, and I consented." 

Black Hawk claimed that he did not mean to shed 
blood in order to carry out his order of eviction, but 
the settlers so interpreted him. They deluged Gov- 
ernor Reynolds of Illinois with petitions for help. 
As a result, a force of sixteen hundred volunteers 
and ten companies of regulars appeared before 
Black Hawk's village, June 25, 1831. During the 
following night, the Indians quietly withdrew to the 
west bank of the Mississippi. On June 30, they 
signed a treaty of peace, agreeing never to return 
to the east bank of the river. 

All might now have been well had not Black Hawk 



206 THE MAKING OF AVISCONSIN 

and a large war party ascended tlie Mississippi on 
a mission of vengeance. They massacred and scalped 
all but one of the party of twenty-eight Menominees 
on an island nearly opposite Prairie du Cliien. This 
was done to avenge a similar act committed by the 
Menominees and Sioux on the British Band the year 
before. Indian vengeance may be slow, but it is 
tolerably certain. 

General Joseph Street, the Indian agent at Prairie 
du Chien, of whom we have already spoken, de- 
manded that the Sauk murderers be delivered to him 
for trial. Black Hawk refused on the plea that none 
of the Menominee murderers the year before had 
been delivered up to trial. His act, according to the 
rules of savage warfare, was justified, but his refusal 
to obey the Indian agent constituted rebellion against 
the United States. 

Encouraged to rebel by the reports which he 
received from agents sent to Maiden and to the 
Prophet's town, which reports led him to believe 
that he would receive British aid and that the Otta- 
was, Chippewas, Pottawattomies and Winnebagoes 
of Wisconsin would become his allies. Black Hawk 
now repaired to the site of old Fort Madison, near 
the mouth of the Des Moines River, and began 
recruiting his band. 

Keokuk, chief of the Sauk and Fox confederacy, 
tried to dissuade him, but to no avail. Black Hawk 
says: 



BLACK HAWK WAR 



207 






•°Hc/f 



thebad Axt 



^*s 



-^"r^^. 






\)t»P 



■90* 



CAMP 
'\li\ KOSH Ho HONb 



/yoRt^i 






.0^* 



YELLOW VILLAc'e." 

Banks 



..^^^' 



:r FT ARM^L^e"!/*' 

Q ROtKli*- 



<# 



84/v 



Ottawa trail to 



'r^^to^^ 



'«s 



MAP OF BLACK HAWK WAR 



,r^^' 



.ov- 



9^^ 



aR**^ 



DE5>IMomt'> 



''Keokuk, who has a 
smooth tongue and is a 
great speaker, was busy persuading 
my band that I was wrong, and 
thereby making many of them dis- 
satisfied with me. I had one conso- 
lation, for all the women were on my side, on account 
of their cornfields." 

On April 6, 1832, Black Hawk and about five hun- 
dred braves, with their wives and children, crossed 
the Mississippi Eiver, at the Yellow Banks, thus 



208 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

invading the state of Illinois. The Prophet met him 
here. Black Hawk says of this meeting: 

"The Prophet then addressed my braves and 
warriors. He told them to follow ns, and act like 
braves, and we had nothing to fear, but mnch to 
gain. That the American war chief might come, 
bnt would not, dare not, interfere with us so long- 
as we acted peaceably. That we were not yet ready 
to act otherwise. We must wait until we ascend 
Rock Eiver and receive reinforcements, and we will 
then be able to withstand any army." 

Their intention was to stop above the Prophet's 
town on Eock River, raise a crop during that 
summer, and prepare for the warpath in the fall. 

The Pottawattomies, to whom Black Hawk had 
sent messengers asking for help, were divided in 
opinion — a majority under the influence of the chief 
Shaubena remaining neutral, while the hot-heads 
under Big Foot were fiercely desirous to go on the 
warpath. Shaubena himself set out to make a rapid 
tour of the settlements in the valleys of the Rock and 
the Illinois, warning them of approaching war. 

General Atkinson, with a company of regulars, 
had come north to enforce the demand of General 
Street for the Sauk murderers. He was at Fort 
Armstrong (Rock Island) when he learned of the 
invasion, seven days after it occurred. He at once 
notified Governor Reynolds that his force was too 
small for etfective work, and that volunteers must 



BLACK HAWK WAR 209 

be called out. Some sixteen hundred responded to 
Governor Reynolds's call.^ 

General Atkinson sent two sets of messengers to 
Black Hawk ordering liim to withdraw at once to 
the west bank of the Mississippi River on peril of 
being driven there by force of arms. Black Hawk's 
reply to the war chief was, "If you wish to fight us, 
you may come on ! " 

On May 9 the army started to follow Black 
Hawk's trail up the Rock, the land force under 
General Whiteside, while Atkinson, with cannon, pro- 
visions, baggage, and three hundred men, followed 
in boats. Whiteside outdistanced Atkinson. When 
]ie reached the Prophet's town, he found it deserted, 
but the trail up the river fresh, so he pushed on to 
Dixon's. Here he found two independent battalions 
under Majors Stillman and Bailey. These men 
objected to joining the regulars, being full of enthu- 
siasm and impatient of the slow advance of the army. 
They asked permission of Wliiteside to go forward 
as scouts, receiving which, they set out imder 
Stillman, May 13. 

Black Hawk, with about' forty of his braves, was 
holding council with the chiefs of Big Foot's faction 
of the Pottawattomies up the Rock River, some three 

1 Abraham Lincoln was a captain in one of the regiments. .Jefferson 
Davis, lieutenant of Company B, First United States Infantry, was 
stationed at Prairie du Chien. but was absent from his company on 
furlough during this summer. Zachary Taylor was colonel of four 
hundred regular infantry gathered from Forts Crawford (Prairie du 
Chien) and Leavenworth. 



210 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

miles north of where Stillman's men encamped on 
the afternoon of May 14. 

Finding that he could induce only about one hun- 
dred Pottawattomies to join him, Black Hawk was 
discouraged, and he says that at this time he had 
made up his mind to return west of the Mississippi 
when next summoned by General Atkinson (AAliite 
Beaver) to do so. Whether or not this be true, we 
cannot say, but events that now transpired caused 
him to act otherwise, whatever he may have intended. 

Hearing that there was a force of whites encamped 
three miles below, and thinking it was Atkinson's, 
he sent three of his young men with a white flag, 
asking the A^'liite Beaver to meet him in council. 
Some of Stillman's men, seeing them approaching 
nearly a mile away, rushed out upon them, helter- 
skelter, and ran them into camp. Black Hawk had 
sent five other braves to watch what happened. They, 
too, were sighted, pursued, and two of them killed. 
The fact that Stillman's men were probably intoxi- 
cated scarcely excuses such a violation of the rules of 
warfare. 

The other three Indians returned to tell Black 
Hawk of the disaster which had befallen them. He 
was hot with anger, and justly so. With his few 
warriors, less than fort}^ (for the Pottawattomie 
chiefs hastily returned to their homes), Black Hawk 
went forth to avenge his wrongs. 

The whites were three hundred strong, the Indians 



BLACK HAWK WAR 211 

only about one tenth that number, but at the first 
volley of Black Hawk and his braves the whites fled 
as though the furies had been let loose upon them, 
fled until nightfall put an end to the chase but not 
the flight. These volunteers, panicstricken, ran 
madly on until they reached Dixon's, twenty-five 
miles away; and some of them did not stop even 
then, but flew on the wings of fear to their own 
firesides, spreading the direful tale that Black Hawk 
and two thousand bloodthirsty warriors were on the 
warpath, sweeping all before them ! 

It is not to be wondered at that Black Hawk con- 
ceived a very poor opinion of the bravery of the 
Americans, and that he should consider that war had 
been forced upon him ; that the whites, not he, were 
responsible for the bloodshed which followed. He 
says: 

* ' I had resolved upon giving up the war, and sent 
a flag of peace to the American war chief, expecting, 
as a matter of right, reason and justice, that our 
flag would be respected (I have always seen it so in 
war among the whites), and a council convened that 
we might explain our grievances, having been driven 
from our village the year before, without permission 
to gather corn and provisions which our women had 
labored hard to cultivate, and ask permission to 
return, — thereby giving up all idea of going to war 
against the whites. Yet, instead of this honorable 
course which I have always seen practised in war, I 



212 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

was forced into war, with about five hundred 
warriors to contend against three or four thousand. ' ' 

But for this dishonorable treatment of a flag of 
truce, the Black Hawk War might never have been. 

Black Hawk, guided by friendly Winnebagoes, now 
hurriedly removed his women and children to the 
swamps of Lake Koshkonong in southern Wisconsin. 
Joined by parties of Winnebagoes and Pottawatto- 
mies, he then returned into northern Illinois, ready 
for active forays. 

Great was the consternation in northern Illinois 
and southern Wisconsin over the reports spread 
broadcast by Stillman's men. Settlers hurried into 
the forts like chickens to cover. A remarkable 
incident of the panic is told : 

''In the hurried rout that took place at this time, 
there was a family that lived near the river [the 
Iroquois, in northeastern Illinois]. They had no 
horses, but a large family of small children; the 
father and mother each took a child, the rest were 
directed to follow on foot as soon as possible. The 
eldest daughter also carried one of the children that 
was not able to keep up. They fled to the river, 
which they had to cross. The father had to carry 
over all the children at different times, as the stream 
was high, and so rapid the mother and daughter 
could not stem the current with such a burden. When 
they all, as they thought, had got over, they started, 
when the cry of poor little Susan was heard on the 



BLACK HAWK WAE 213 

opposite bank, asking if they were not going to take 
her with them. The frightened father again began 
to prepare to phmge into the strong cnrrent for his 
child, when the mother, seeing it, cried out, 'Never 
mind Susan ; we have succeeded in getting ten over, 
which is more than we expected at first — and we can 
better spare Susan than you, my dear. ' 

*'So poor Susan, who was only about four years 
old, was left to the mercy of the frightful savages. 
But poor little Susan came off unhurt; one of the 
neighbors, who was out hunting, came along and took 
charge of little Susan, the eleventh, who had been so 
miserably treated by her mother. ' ^ 

Stillman's men showed still further cowardice. 
Atkinson left them to guard the wounded and the 
supplies at Dixon's, while he went on up the Rock. 
He was no sooner gone than they started for their 
homes, a second time deserting. Atkinson thereupon 
returned to Dixon's, ordering Whiteside to follow 
Black Hawk up the Kishwaukee River. 

But Whiteside's men refused to follow the trail 
beyond the state line, saying that they had enlisted 
for service in Illinois, not in Michigan Territory. So 
they abandoned the pursuit and returned to Ottawa, 
where they were mustered out of the service. Thus 
ingloriously ended the first campaign of the war. 

More volunteers were now called for by Governor 
Reynolds, and the government ordered General 
Winfield Scott to proceed from the seaboard to the 



214 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



seat of war with one thousand regulars.' General 
Atkinson persuaded two hundred mounted vohm- 
teers to remain in service. General AVliiteside 
enlisted as a private soldier in this battalion. Within 
three weeks after Stillman's defeat, there were in 
the field about four thousand effective men. 

Black Hawk had divided his forces into war 
parties, he himself leading the largest, which con- 
sisted of about two hundred warriors. The engage- 
ments which followed were thus necessarily irregular 
and scattering, consisting of forays and chance 
encounters. 

On June 14, a party of eleven Sauks killed five 
white men on the Pecatonica River in what is now 
La Fayette County. Colonel Dodge, with twenty- 
nine men, overtook the savages the next day, and 
a battle ensued in which the Indians had eleven 
killed and the whites three. Dodge's force was made 
up of a free and easy set, animated by a love of 
adventure and hatred of the Indian. 

On June 24, Black Hawk's party attacked the fort 
on Apple River, but was repulsed. The woman and 
girls aided the little garrison by molding bullets and 
loading guns. 

Atkinson, who was still at Dixon's, learned that 
Black Hawk's main camp was still near Lake Kosh- 
konong, so he started up the Rock, June 27. They 



1 Owins to sickness which attacked the army on the march, they did 
not arrive until after the war was over. 



BLACK HAWK WAR 215 

found the Sauk trail still fresh, for Black Hawk, 
after the repulse at Apple Eiver, had fled east to 
the Rock and was now three or four days in advance 
of Atkinson. On July 2 the army arrived at Lake 
Koshkonong, only to find hastily deserted camps. 

Atkinson went into camp here, expecting a general 
engagement soon. He therefore sent out orders to 
all detachments to join them. Treacherous Winne- 
bagoes informed him that Black Hawk was encamped 
on an island in AYliitewater River a few miles east 
of his camp. From July 7 to July 9 he was sending 
scouts on wild-goose chases through the swamps of 
this region, but Black Hawk was already well on 
his way north. 

Discouraged by the adverse conditions prevailing, 
provisions being scarce and the troops worn out, 
many prominent Illinoisans now returned home. 
Atkinson despatched part of his army under Colonels 
Henry and Dodge to Fort Winnebago (Portage) for 
supplies, part to the mining regions to act as guard, 
while he himself went into camp and erected a stock- 
ade where the Bark empties into the Rock, the site 
of the present city of Fort Atkinson. 

While Henry and Dodge were at Fort Winnebago, 
they learned the true location of Black Hawk's camp, 
southeast of them on the Rock. They resolved to 
return that way, and, if possible, bring on an engage- 
ment. A^^ien they arrived, the enemy had again fled, 
and they found only a deserted camp. The Winne- 



21fi THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

bagoes with them insisted that Black Hawk was at 
Cranberry (Horicon) Lake, and the commanders 
resolved to set out for that lake the next day. 

That afternoon a friendly Winnebago chief, Little 
Thunder, convinced them that they must go south 
and west if they would strike the trail of the tireless 
Sauk. They struck the trail about half way between 
the present cities of Watertown and Jefferson. It 
led west on almost exactly the line of the Chicago 
and Northwestern Eailway from Jefferson Junction 
to Madison. 

The trail was a difficult one to follow, the men 
often having to dismount and wade in the water and 
mud to their armpits. By sunset of the second day, 
eluly 20, they reached the northeast extremity of 
Third Lake, where they camped. Black Hawk was 
only seven or eight miles beyond. 

The next day they were hot on his trail, and in 
the afternoon overtook his rear guard on the banks 
of the Wisconsin. After half an hour of hot firing, 
the whites charged the enemy. The Indians finally 
retreated, joining the main body which was crossing 
the stream. 

After dusk, Black Hawk placed on a large raft 
and in canoes obtained from the AVinnebagoes a 
number of old men, women and children, and sent 
them down the river, hoping that the garrison at 
Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien) would consider 
them as noncombatants and allow them to pass un- 



BLACK HAWK WAK 217 

harmed. Brrt the x\mericans were not so generous. 
General Street sent out a force to attack them, and 
most of the numher were either killed or captured. 
Of the few who escaped to the woods, nearly all were 
massacred by a company of Menominee allies. 

Being unfamiliar with the country north of the 
Wisconsin, and insufficiently provisioned for a long 
march. Colonel Henry abandoned the pursuit for the 
time being and marched his force to Blue Mounds 
for supplies. Here he was joined, July 23, by 
Atkinson with his command. 

On July 27 and 28 the combined forces crossed the 
Wisconsin on rafts made from the logs of the 
cabins of Helena. They struck the trail about fixe 
miles northeast of the crossing. They found it led 
to the northwest, toward the Mississippi. They 
were now in an unknown country, but the trail was 
not difficult to follow, being marked by the bodies of 
dead Sauks who had died on the way, either from 
wounds or of starvation. There were abundant evi- 
dences that the fleeing savages were in the last 
extreme of hunger, for they were eating the bark 
of trees and the scant flesh of* their exhausted ponies. 

Black Hawk and his few almost starved braves 
reached the Mississippi about two miles south of 
where the Bad Axe empties into it. He tried to get 
across, but as he had only two or three canoes, the 
passage was necessarily slow. One large raft, filled 
with women and children, was sent down the east 



218 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



side of the river, but it capsized, and nearly all 
aboard were drowned. 

In the afternoon, a sujDply steamer from Prairie 
du Chien appeared on the scene. Black Hawk waved 
a white flag as the steamer neared the shore. He 
called ont in the Winnebago tongue that they wished 




it; 




liiiiiiiiillji 


L. 


!■■■■■■■ 


■ 1 




BLA-CK HAWK WAR :ME:SI0RIAL. FORT ATKINSON.i 

to give themselves up, ^but, although a Winnebago 
on board correctly interpreted his request, the cap- 
tain affected to believe that it was a trick to entice 



1 This is a large boulder of native granite placed on the corner of the 
ground included within General Atkinson's stockade, and bearing this 
inscrintion on a marble tablet : 

"Near this spot General Atkinson built a stockade in the Black Hawk 
War, 1832. To mark this historic ground the Fort Atkinson Daughters of 
the American Revolution place this memorial. 1006." 

The cannon ball at the left was unearthed in the excavation of a 
cellar near this spot. 



BLACK HAWK WAK 219 

them into ambush, so ordered his men to fire. As a 
result, twenty-three more Sauks laid down their lives 
for a lost cause, and Black Hawk received one more 
lesson in the way Americans carried on war. 

Black Hawk, seeing that his cause was lost, gath- 
ered a party of ten braves, among whom was the 
Prophet, and recrossed the river as soon as the 
steamer, which was short of fuel, was out of sight 
on its return to Prairie du Chien. He then started 
east, intending to hide in the dells of the Wisconsin. 
The next day, feeling conscience-stricken at having 
deserted his friends, he returned, and. from a cliff 
near by witnessed the close of the battle of the Bad 
Axe, the death blow of the British Band. He turned 
into the forest and fled. 

The battle took place August 2, when Atkinson's 
forces came up with the Sauks on the banks of the 
Mississippi. The Indians fought with desperation, 
even though weakened by hunger and long marches, 
but there could be but one outcome. A few escaped 
by swimming to the west bank of the Mississippi, 
but many who, in despair, plunged in were drowned 
or picked off by the sharpshooters. The whites 
respected neither age nor sex, killing women and 
children with the same indifference with which they 
slew the braves. 

The carnage lasted three hours, the Indians losing 
one hundred fifty killed outright, probably as many 
more by drowning, while about fifty women and chil- 



220 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

dren were taken prisoners. Seventeen whites were 
killed and twelve wounded. 

Of those who crossed the river, fully one half were 
massacred by a party of Sioux sent out by Atkinson 
to intercept them. Out of the thousand who had 
crossed the Yellow Banks in the spring, possibly 
a meager hundred fifty lived to tell the sorrowful 
tale of a misguided people. 

But what of the fleeing Black Hawk? His story 
is soon finished. He with the Prophet was delivered 
over by two Winnebagoes, ever treacherous as a 
nation and as individuals, to General Street at 
Prairie du Chien. They had tracked the fugitives to 
the dells of the Wisconsin. 

On September 21, 1832, a treaty of peace was 
signed at Fort Armstrong (Eock Island). Black 
Hawk and the Prophet, with other Indians, were 
to be held as hostages, pledges for the good 
behavior of the remnant of the British Band and 
their Winnebago allies. 

♦Lieutenant Jefferson Davis was detailed to act 
as their guard when they were transferred from Fort 
Armstrong to Jefferson Barracks (St. Louis). An 
account of Davis 's life says : 

"He entirely won the heart of the savage chief- 
tain, and before they reached Jefferson Barracks 
there had sprung up between the stern red warrior 
and the young paleface a warm friendship which 
only terminated with tlije life of Black Hawk. ' ' 



BLACK HAWK WAR 221 

The hostages remained at the Barracks through 
the winter, but in April, 1833, they were taken to 
Washington, where they had an interview with Presi- 
dent Jackson. He most emphatically told them that 
the Government would compel the Red Men to be at 
peace. 

They were then sent to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, 
for confinement, the same place that afterward held 
Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, as 
prisoner. 

On June 4, 1833, Black Hawk and his fellow pris- 
oners were set free by order of President Jackson. 
They were then taken through the principal cities 
of the country on their way home, in order that they 
might be properly impressed with the importance 
and power of the whites, and thus see the hopeless- 
ness of any future attack. 

For several years Black Hawk lived quietly on a 
small reservation set apart for him and his followers 
near the head of the Des Moines Rapids, Iowa, and 
here he died, October 3, 1838, at the age of seventy- 
one.^ 

Thus ended in peace and quietness the life of one 
who had brought about one of the bloodiest of Indian 

1 In July, 1839, an Illinois physician stole Black Hawk's body from its 
grave. The warrior's family complained, and Governor Lucas of Iowa, 
in 1840, caused the skeleton to be delivered to him at Burlington, 
then the capital of Iowa Territory. Later in that year the seat of 
government was moved to Iowa City, and the box containing the remains 
was deposited in a law office in that town. It remained here until the 
night of January 16. 1853, when the building and its contents were 
destroyed by fire. It had been intended to place the skeleton in the 
museum of "the Iowa Historical and Geological Institute, but the fire 
occurred before the removal could take place. 



222 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



wars in the history of our state, and yet he cannot 
be blamed, for had he been treated with ordinary 
fairness and justice, the war need not have been. 
His own words are his best defense : ' ' Rock River 
was a beautiful country. I liked my town, my corn- 
fields, and the home of my people. I fought for 
them." 




CHAPTER XVIII 

OUR NAME AND OUR BOUNDARIES 

Scarcely had Black Hawk put his goose-quill to the 
treaty and peace become an assured fact, when set- 
tlers began again to pour into our borders. From 
Ohio, from New York, even from faraway Maine, 
they came, for the Erie Canal, completed in 1825, 
had made it easy for emigrants to push westward 
into the woods of Michigan, of which the Badger 
State was yet a part. 

Our territory had been successively a part of the 
Northwest Territory, from 1787 to 1800 ; of Indiana 
Territory, from 1800 to 1809 (Map A) ; of Illinois 
Territory, from 1809 to 1818 (Map B) ; and of Michi- 
gan Territory, from 1818 to 1836 (Map C). 

As Legler well says, "Wisconsin was an orphan 
in the neglectful charge, first of the Northwest 
Territory, then of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan 
Territories.'' 

But the people west of Lake Michigan, some 
twenty-two thousand in number, had long since tired 
of this government, which was almost no govern- 
ment at all, and had begun to agitate the matter of 
controlling their own affairs. 

Thev argued, in favor of this, that Detroit, the 



224 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



seat of govern- 
ment, was over 
five Imndred 
miles away, with 
no communica- 
tion except by 
trails and water- 
ways, difficult at 
any time and 
impassable lialf 
the time ; that 
their votes could 
not reach De- 
troit before the 
question upon 
which they had 
voted was al- 
, ready past history, and that therefore they had 
practically no voice in the government. They also 
claimed that they needed a government of their own 
in order to insure prompt and effective protection 
against the Indians within and around their borders. 
In 1824, Judge Doty' drew up a bill for the organi- 
zation of the new territory under the name of Chip- 
pewau. This he sent with a petition signed by a 
large number of residents to United States Senator 
Benton, of Missouri, requesting him to get the matter 
before Congress. The boundaries of the new terri- 




er ap A (l.SOO-1800) 



■I The same before whom Red Bird and his accomplices were tried. 



OUE NAME AND OUR BOUNDARIES 



•25 



toiy, as defined by Doty, are sliown in the map on 
page 227. 

In spite of Judge Doty's persistent efforts in writ- 
ing letters to })rominent Congressmen, the matter 
was not deemed important enougli to be given 
consideration. 

In 1827, Judge Doty, in deference to the wishes of 
some, expressed a willingness to call the new terri- 
tory Wiskonsan, a corruption of the Indian name 
of the principal river. But still Congress did not 
appreciate the necessity for action. 

The next year, 1828, the people of Detroit, 
awakened to the fact that Michigan, which was 
already looking 
toward state- 
hood, was being 
narrowed in her 
possible bounda- 
ries, sent a pro- 
test to Congress, 
objecting most 
strongly to giv- 
ing up the terri- 
tory lying east 
of Mackinac; 
about that lying- 
west they cared 
nothing, in their 
ignorance re- map b (isoo-isis) 




226 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



garding it as valueless. To this the people west of 
Lake Michigan were welcome. 

In order properly to understand Michigan's posi- 
tion, we must go back to the Ordinance of 1787. That 
Ordinance, we must remember, provided for five 

possible states 
to be formed out 
of the Northwest 
Territory, and 
even specified 
the boundaries 
of the same. 

That Ordi- 
nance made a 
due east and 
west line from 
the most south- 
ern point of 
Lake Michigan 
the northern 
boundary of tlie 
three lower 
states. But this most southern point was in terri- 
tory as yet unsurveyed, hence unknown. Therefore 
when Ohio became a state in 1802 she was given a 
•boundary "running from the southern extremity of 
Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of Miami 
Bay on Lake Erie," a line extending, as may be 
seen, northeast and southwest. 




MAP C (1818-1836) 



OUE NAME AND OUR BOUNDAEIES 



227 




THE TEHKITOUY OF CHIPPEWAU 



When, in 1805, Michigan Territory was organized, 
it was given for a southern boundary the line de- 
scribed in the Ordinance, and in the upper peninsula 
all the land east of a north and south line through 
Mackinac. A glance at the map will show that the 
boundaries of Michigan and Ohio overlapped. 

The wedge-shaped strip in dispute averaged six 
miles in width and contained about four hundred 
fifty square miles, including the present site of 
Toledo. 

Congress ordered the boundary between the two 
surveyed in 1812, but the survey was not completed 



228 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



until 1835, the whole question hanging, of course, 
upon the most southerly point of Lake Michigan. 
Congress finally solved the question by forcing a 
compromise upon the two. Ohio was to have the 
wedge in question, and Michigan, as compensation, 
was offered the whole of the upper peninsula, a re- 
gion geographically and legally (if the ordinance of 
1787 was binding) belonging to Wisconsin. This was 
robbing Peter to pay Paul with a vengeance. 

Michigan did not want the northern peninsula, 
protesting that it was barren waste, that it naturally 
and rightfully l)elonged to the fifth state, that she 

had no common 
interest with the 
people of that 
region, it being 
separated from 
the southern 
part by insur- 
mountable natu- 
ral barriers half 
of the year. 

But Michigan 
wanted state- 
hood, and Con- 
gress alone could 
give h e r what 
DIVISION OF s h e w a n t e d ; 

NORTHWEST TERRITORY ACCORDING . -, 

TO ORDINANCE OF 1787 ll U C sho WaS 




OUE NAME AND OUR BOUNDARIES 229 




WISCONSIN TERRITORY, 183G 

forced to yield, vriiicli slie did, tliougii very unwill- 
ingly, in Decemijer, 1836. 

Tims was Judge Doty 's territory of ' ' Cliippewan, ' ' 
or "Wiskonsan," or "Huron," as be called it in 
1830, or Wisconsin, as it was named in 1834, shaved 
of a goodly portion on the northeast. 

As to how Indiana came to have a northern bound- 
ary even farther north than Ohio is equally interest- 
ing, but does not belong to the history of our state ; 
hence we shall not give it space. 

But how comes the northern boundary of Illinois 
to ])e much farther north than either of the others? 
We shall have to go to a meeting of Congress in 1818 



230 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

to answer that. Illinois is asking to be admitted as 
a state. The bill, introduced by her territorial dele- 
gate, Nathaniel Pope, gives her boundary as pre- 
scribed by the Ordinance of 1787, a line due west 
from tlie southern point of Lake Michigan to the 
Mississippi. Suddenly Mr. Pope bethinks himself 
that Illinois ought to have more lake front, and he 
accordingly proposes an amendment to his bill, 
making 42° 30' her northern boundary, thus coolly 
appropriating a strip over sixty-one miles wide, a 
fertile district containing the sites of Chicago, Ga- 
lena, Freeport, Eockford and many other prosperous 
towns. His argument for this bold move is that if 
Illinois were to have no lake outlet, her interests 
would lie to the south and west, and in the event of 
the Union's being disrupted, his state would 
naturally join a southern or western confederacy in 
preference to a northern or eastern one. His 
argument prevails, strange as it may seem, for the 
as yet unformed territory in the north has neither 
voice nor friend in Congress. 

When Wisconsin was finally organized as a terri- 
tory, in 1836, she tacitly accepted 42° 30' as her 
southern boundary and her present northeastern 
boundary, although this latter had to be determined 
by later surveys. Almost immediately, however, she 
began to take steps for the recovery of her stolen ter- 
ritory on the south. Of this we shall speak later. 

The question of her spoliation on the northwest 



OUR NAME AND OUE BOUNDAEIES 231 

also belongs to the period when the territory was 
asking for statehood, and will be taken up later. 

On Jnly 4, 1836, the new territory was organized 
at Mineral Point. President Jackson had appointed 
Henry Dodge of Dodgeville, of whom we heard in 
the Black Hawk War, as governor, for the term of 
three years, but he might be removed by the Presi- 
dent at any time. His salary was fixed at $2,500 a 
year. 

At the election the following October there were 
chosen thirteen members of the council (senate) for 
four years, and twice that number of representatives 
(assemblymen) for two years. Their salary was 
three dollars a day and the same sum for every 
twenty miles traveled each way from the seat of gov- 
ernment. The seat of government was fixed at Bel- 
mont, Iowa County, by proclamation of the governor. 

A chief justice and two associates were appointed 
by the President. District, probate courts, and jus- 
tices of the peace were provided for. 

The first legislature met in a story-and-a-half 
frame house surrounded by stumps, lead-miners' 
shafts, prospectors' holes and shanties. It is inter- 
esting to note that Governor Dodge's first message 
to this legislature, which met October 25, 1836, urged 
a memorial to Congress asking for an appropriation 
of two hundred fifty thousand dollars to improve the 
navigation of the upper Mississippi. He advocated 
the improvement of the Eock Eiver, and connecting 



232 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 




illE CAPITOL IN 18G0 

it with the Wisconsin by way of the Four Lakes 
at Madison. He recommended a grant of land by 
Congress to aid in bnilding a railroad between Lake 
Michigan and the Mississippi, and also a grant by 
Congress of one township, the i3roceeds to be used 
in establishing an "academy for the education of 
youth. ' ' 

The most imx)ortant work of the session was the 
location of the capital. Some twenty towns, real and 
imaginary, immediately became candidates for the 
honor — Milwaukee, Racine, Platteville, Portage, 
Mineral Point, Green Bay, Fond du Lac, Belmont, 
Madison and Koshkonong among the number — and 
each had its advocates. The members of the legis- 
lature were besieged in season and out of season by 



OUR NAME AND OUE BOUNDARIES 



233 



men who lioped to reap advantage, financial or other- 
wise, from the location of the seat of government. 

Of the imaginary towns, which existed only on 
paper, Madison was one. Judge Doty, the one to 
whom Wisconsin owed her territorial organization, 
not only did not receive a place in the distribution of 




THE CAPrrOL IN 1904 



the new territorial offices, but he even lost the judge- 
ship which he had hitherto held. He knew the state 
well, especially the southern and eastern portions, 
for he had traveled over nearly every mile of its 
extent. He was a sincere admirer of the beautiful 
Four Lakes region, and in his mind's eye had often 
seen a prosperous city on the narrow isthmus 
between Third and Fourth lakes. He had such 
faith in his vision that he persuaded Governor Mason 



234 i'HE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

of Michigan to join him in the purchase of twelve 
hundred acres of land around the present Capitol 
Park as a center. With a surveyor's help he platted 
a city there, which he named Madison, for Ex-Presi- 
dent Madison. 

With this plat in his pocket and determination in 
his heart, he started for Behnont as soon as the legis- 
lature convened. He was full of enthusiasm and 
arguments for his paper city, not the least powerful 
among the latter being the present of town lots to 
the legislators. It would seem that men even in 
those good old times had their price. At any rate, 
on every vote the imaginary Madison held its own 
against the real Milwaukee, Green Bay, Eacine and 
Platteville, and on the final vote secured the coveted 
prize. 

There were many reasons why the legislators 
should vote for Madison, aside from the great natural 
l)eauty of the site and Judge Doty's town lot gifts. 
There were three centers of settlement — Green Bay, 
Milwaukee, and the lead region. None of these sec- 
tions would yield its claims to the others; hence 
some compromise was necessary. Madison, midway 
])etween the lake and the Mississippi River, was the 
most natural one. It might form the connecting link 
among the otlier sections and help to develop the 
interior of the state. 

The land in Capitol Park was deeded to Wiscon- 



OUR NAME AND OUR BOUNDARIES 235 

sin Territory January 16, 1839, by its owners. 
Governor Mason and Judge Doty. 

Work upon the capitol was begun in June, and the 
cornerstone was laid July 4. The building when 
completed cost sixty thousand dollars. In 1857 it 
was decided to enlarge the building. The improve- 
ments were completed in 1869. 

But ten years had scarcely passed before the cap- 
itol was found inadequate, and in 1882 the legisla- 
ture appropriated two hundred thousand dollars to 
build two wings. While in course of construction the 
south wing collapsed, killing eight men. Up to 1904 
nine hundred thousand dollars had been expended 
for additions and improvements. 

On February 27, 1904, a fire destroyed a large part 
of the interior of the capitol. Plans were already 
in progress for enlarging the building, and the fire 
simply hastened matters. The plans adopted in- 
volve many changes in the design. It is expected 
that the new building will be more modern, commo- 
dious and beautiful than the old. 



CHAPTER XIX 

TEERITOEIAL EVENTS 

The second territorial legislature met in Burlington, 
Iowa, in 1837. Two of its acts are worthy of men- 
tion, one establishing the University of Wisconsin, 
the other incorporating the Milwaukee and Rock 
River Canal Company. A memorial addressed to 
Congress asked that body to give twenty thousand 
dollars and two townships (nearly fifty thousand 
acres of land) to aid the university. Only the latter 
request was granted. The proceeds of this grant 
were the first endowment of our university. 

Land was also granted in aid of the Milwaukee- 
Rock River waterway, 1838, but owing to misman- 
agement, political quarrels and personal strife the 
canal was never finished. Its affairs dragged along 
until 1875. 

The third legislature met in the new capital in 
1838. A few rude frame and log houses constituted 
the real city. Judge Doty's magnificent structures 
being as yet unrealized except on paper. The erec- 
tion of the capitol had been started, but it had not 
progressed beyond the basement. The legislators 
were reduced to all sorts of shifts for bed and board, 
and the outsiders who came fared even Avorse. 

236 



TEEKITORIAL EVf:XTS 



237 



''Lucky was the guest wliose good fortiiue is vaas to 
rest his weary ]im])s on a straw or liay mattress." 

But in spite of conditions adverse to physical com- 
fort, there was no lack of enjoyment in the neT\' cap- 
ital, dancing and 
merrymaking wliil- 
ing away the even- 
ing hours. 

Railroads were 
as yet unknown, all 
travel being hj 
boat, horseback, 
or, in winter, by 
"French train." 

The year 1839 
is memorable as 
marking the incor- 
poration of the 
Wisconsin Marine 

and Fire Insurance (^ompany. This company was 
(4iartered to do a general insuring and loaning 
business. The name "bank," rendered unpopular 
by the wildcat banking that led up to the panic of 
1837, was not used, but this company was a bank in 
everything but name. 

The institution opened its doors in Milwaukee with 
a young Scot, Alexander Mitchell, as secretary. He 
soon became the center, the whole life of the concern, 
and the firm built up a large business. They issued 




ALEXANDER MITCHELL 



238 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

certificates of deposit wbicli passed as currency, 
although the sole guarantee of their worth was Alex- 
ander Mitchell's signature. This signature came to 
be considered as good as gold simply because he paid 
every check promptly upon presentation. 

In a short time Mitchell became the proprietor as 
well as manager. To be sure, he was doing an ille- 
gal business, for he had no charter to do banking, 
but he prospered because he did an honest business. 
In those days of fraudulent banking he was con- 
spicuous. ^%en, in 1845, the legislature revoked his 
franchise, and he could no longer do business in this 
state, he paid his certificates in Chicago, St. Louis 
and other cities. "Mitchell's Bank" was always 
open. After a time even the territorial government 
itself had to borrow from him. 

In 1852, after the territory had become a state, 
a new banking law was passed, and Mitchell, paying 
his deposit certificates in full in gold, took out a 
regular bank charter and added "bank" to the name 
of his institution. His was the first real bank in 
Milwaukee. 

In 1841 Governor Dodge, Jackson's appointee, was 
removed by President Tyler, and Judge Doty was 
appointed in his place. Doty was an able man, but 
passionate and impulsive. He often aroused antag- 
onism by his manner, which was aggressive in the 
extreme. During the three years of his governor- 
ship there were stormy times in the territory, al- 



TEERITORIAL EVENTS 



239 



though not all the disturbances can ])e laid to him. 
One of these incidents was the darkest in the 
legislative history of the state. 

Governor Doty caused bitter feelings by his first 
message to the legis- 
lature. Later he sent 
in the name of Enos 
S. Baker for sheriff 
of Grant County to 
the council for con- 
firmation. One of the 
members moved to 
lay the nomination 
on the table, a motion 
made simply to re- 
taliate upon the gov- 
ernor. An excited de- 
bate followed. Two 
members, James 

Vineyard, of Grant County, and Charles Arndt, of 
Brown County, although the warmest personal 
friends, got into a quarrel. In a sarcastic manner 
Arndt made a statement concerning Vineyard, and 
Vineyard retorted that the statement was false. 
This caused excitement and confusion. Some one 
hastily made a motion to adjourn, but the noise of 
the quarrel drowned the voice of the speaker. Order 
was finally restored and the council adjourned. 

Arndt then advanced to Vineyard, demanding 




GOV. .ja:\ies d. doty 



240 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

whether or not the latter had said his remarks were 
falsehoods. 

"They were false," asserted Vineyard. 

Arndt then struck Vineyard in the face ; Vineyard 
drew a pistol and shot his friend. In iiye minutes 
Arndt was dead. Only that morning" the two men 
had been seen with their arms about each other's 
shoulders. 

Vineyard surrendered himself to the sheriff, and 
sent in his resignation to the council. This body 
refused to accept it, expelling him instead. He was 
admitted to bail in the sum of ten thousand dollars. 
At his trial, which took place in Green County, Vine- 
,yard was tried for manslaughter, pleaded self- 
defense, and was acquitted by the jury. 

Charles Dickens was then making his first visit 
to the United States. He read of the shooting in 
the newspapers, and thus refers to the account 
there giyen : 

"Public indignation runs high in the territory of 
Wisconsin, in relation to the murder of C. C. P. 
Arndt, in the legislative hall of the territory. Meet- 
ings have been held in different counties of Wiscon- 
sin, denouncing the practice of secretly hearmg arms 
in the legislative chambers of the country. We have 
seen the account of the expulsion of James R. Vine- 
yard, the perpetrator of the bloody deed, and are 
amazed to hear that, after this expulsion by those 
who saw Vineyard kill Mr. Arndt in the presence of 



TEEEITOEIAL EVENTS 241 

Ids aged father, who was on a visit to see his son, 
r.ttle dreaming that he was to witness his murder, 
Jiidqe Dunn has discharged Vineyard on hail. The 
Miners^ Free Press speaks in terms of merited- 
rebuke at the outrage upon the feelings of the people 
of Wisconsin/ 

In his comments on this and sundry other clip- 
]:>ings Dickens seems to regard as characteristic of 
our pioneer days what was but a solitary instance. 
One might think from his account that shootings in 
legislative bodies were a connnon occurrence in the 
West, whereas this case is conspicuous because of 
its rarity. 

One of the most interesting events of territorial 
days was an experiment in communism, made by an 
association known as The Wisconsin Phalanx, near 
the present city of Ripon. 

In old Southport (now Kenosha) was a debating 
society made up of pioneers from New England and 
New York. The doctrines of Fourier, a Frenchman, 
were then attracting much attention, and through 
the columns of Horace Greeley's paper, the New 
York Tribune, had reached even the western wilds 
of Wisconsin. 

Fourierism, in brief, was a system of living 
together in groups of four hundred families, or 
eighteen hundred persons. According to this plan 

1 Charles Dickens's "American Notes," page 443. The italics are Mr. 
Dickens's own. 



242 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



there should be one immense building in the center 
oi* the community, around it being the individual 
homes and a large region cultivated in common. The 
central building was to be the social and culture 
center of the group. All trades, occupations and 




THE WISCONSIN THALANX LONG HOUSE NEAR RIPON 

professions were to be represented in the community, 
so that its diversified needs might be supplied. A 
noticeable detail was the common dining-hall in 
which all should gather for the daily meals. 

The debating society in Southport discussed the 
plan, became interested in it, and finally determined 
to make the experiment. A few leading men drew 
up the plan, called the association The Wisconsin 
Phalanx, and sold shares in it at twenty-five dollars 
each. They purchased a tract of land near Ripon. 



TEEEITOEIAL EVENTS 243 

Twenty persons from Southport constituted the 
advance guard of the community, entering the 
valley on Sunday, May 27, 1844. They started in to 
l)uild homes and plant crops. By July about twenty 
families had come. They ate at the common table 
in the Phalanx Long House, a building four hundred 
feet in length. Board was furnished at the extremely 
low price of sixty-three cents a week. 

They secured a charter from the legislature, and, 
thanks to the enthusiasm and industry of the mem- 
bers, the colony p^rospered. The second season saw 
thirty families enrolled in the Phalanx. 

But, notwithstanding the fact that the colony pros- 
pered, the experiment proved a failure. Board at 
the common tal)le never rose higher than seventy- 
five cents a week, and no complaint was made of the 
quality of the meals served; yet many families pre- 
ferred to eat at their own homes. Other causes came 
in to bring about dissatisfaction, the chief being, 
perhaps, the old argument against communism — 
that there is no reward for individual excellence. 
The indolent and the unworthy share in the rewards 
with the industrious and the worthy. Seven years 
saw the end. The farm, which had increased greatly 
in value, was sold, and the proceeds divided among 
the members. 

Wisconsin has claimed many notable men as her 
citizens, but only one among them has been prophet, 
seer, lawgiver and king in one. Such was James 



244 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

Jesse Strang, known in his later years as King 
Strang. 

His l)eginnings in New York state were hnmble. 
Country schoolmaster, journalist, self-educated law- 
yer, editor, postmaster — a sort of Jack at all trades 
and master of none — he wandered about from place 
to place, began to lecture on temperance, and finally, 
in 1843, drifted with his wife to Burlington, Racine 
County, where he again hung out his shingle as a 
lawyer. 

The following January his roving fancy was 
caught by the words of some Mormon elders who 
were seeking converts in Wisconsin, and he became 
an enthusiastic Latter-day Saint. The next month 
he went to the Mormon settlement at Nauvoo, Illi- 
nois, for baptism. So rapidly did he grow in the 
new faith that in less than seven days he was made 
an elder and given authority to plant a stake of 
Zion in Wisconsin. 

He selected a place near the A¥liite Eiver in the 
eastern part of Walworth County, and named it 
Voree, ' ' Garden of Peace. ' ' Here he gathered many 
followers. In June he heard that Joseph Smith, 
founder and prophet of Alormonism, had been killed 
by a mob at Carthage, Missouri. 

Strang saw no reason why the prophet's mantle 
should not fall on his shoulders, but, realizing that 
the only way to bring that to pass was to place it 
there himself, he hastened to the sorrowing Mor- 



TEERITORIAL EVENTS 245 

mons at Nauvoo, bearing a letter purporting to be 
written by Joseph Smith the day before his death. 
This letter contained not only the prophecy of his 
own death, but also these words : 

And now beliold my servant, James J. Strang, hath come to 
thee from afar. ... To him shall the gathering be, for he shall 
plant a stake of Zion in Wisconsin. . . . There shall my people 
have peace and rest and wax fat and pleasant in the presence of 
their enemies. 

But Strang was not alone in the desire for the 
prophet's mantle. Brigham Young made so vigorous 
a fight against him that Strang was rejected and 
banished. However, his eloquence — for he had a 
ready tongue — secured him a few hundred follow- 
ers, and accompanied by these he returned to Voree. 

Here he began an energetic regime. He established 
a printing-press, which he kept ever busy printing 
pamphlets to be sown broadcast ; he planned to build 
a magnificent temple, and he organized the church 
on the plan prescribed by Smith in the Book of 
Mormons, he himself being the head. 

But he was not content to be a mere administrator. 
He began to have visions, and in one of these, Sep- 
tember 13, 1845, there was revealed to him the secret 
burial-place of a series of copper plates inscribed 
with strange characters, written, as he claimed, long 
before the captivity of the Children of Israel in 
Babylon. These being found and dug up according 
to his direction, he went into a trance and translated 
them. He called them "Plates of Laban." 



246 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 







1^k,k^\ 









Thereafter when any 
of his followers became 
dissatisfied Strang had 
another vision, discov- 
ered another plate, and 
thus satisfied his easily 
deceived disciples that 
he was a real prophet. 

He discovered eigh- 
teen plates in all, trans- 
lations of which he later 
printed in a book un- 
der the title "Book of 
the Law of the Lord. ' ' 

AV i t h increase o f 
povzer came increase of 
ambition. He desired to 
be a temporal ruler as 
well as spiritual. This 
led him to search for a 
new home for his col- 
ony. His desire for an- 
other abiding-place was 
mcreased by the evident 
hostility of the Gentiles (as he and his people called 
all unbelievers in Mormonism) around. The Nau- 
voo community had been forced into an exile that 
finally led them across the great western plains to 
faraway Utah. Strang read the signs of the times 



A<\J•,vt^Plx:.\l^9, ■ 

\\]\..?l6,v:l\.6T?l i 



M'^^a^fi^ Jo) 

/3?>.Pi,N6QrM I 



PLATES OF LABAN 




TEREITORIAL EVENTS 247 

and determined to lead his people awav before tliey 
were driven away. 

Beaver Island, in the waters between Lakes Huron 
and Michigan, was selected, and in 1847 the exodus 
from Voree began. Only fishermen inhabited the 
island, and these the Mormons drove away, though 
not without some bloodshed. 

They now set about building houses, roads, a mill, 
and a tabernacle. The soil of the island was exceed- 
ingly fertile and agriculture flourished. New con- 
verts came from the East, where elders had been sent 
to preach the doctrine, and the new stake of Zion 
flourished. 

The time now seemed ripe for Strang to realize 
his wildest dreams. One chapter in the ^'Book of 
the Law" prophesied that a man whose name was 
James should become their king. He proceeded to 
make this prophecy true by causing himself to be 
crowned as King Strang, July 8, 1850. 

Only four days previous to the coronation, July 4, 
the Mormons had foiled a plot of the Gentile fisher- 
men to destroy them. When the fishermen came to 
attack them they fovmd themselves greeted with can- 
nonballs, and wisely abandoned the attempt. 

King Strang ruled as a despot. His ''Book of the 
Law," now printed in full, was their bible. He de- 
manded and secured tithes, the firstborn of each flock 
and the first-fruits of the ground. Details of daily 
life were rigorously controlled. The women were 



248 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

compelled to wear bloomers. Liquor, tea, coffee and 
tobacco were forbidden. For the first time plural 
wives were allowed. King James having five. 

But the king found himself no exception to the 
rule that 

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. 

His enemies were plotting against him, and they 
enlisted the United States Government in their be- 
half. He was suddenly arrested, charged with trea- 
son, counterfeiting, and interfering with the govern- 
ment mails. Wlien taken to Detroit for trial he con- 
ducted his own case. He is described as ''intellec- 
tual, fluent in speech, and of suave manners." Such 
was the effect of his oratory upon the jury that they 
acquitted him, and he returned to his kingdom in 
triumph. 

Six years of kingship did Strang enjoy, then the 
bullets of two assassins laid him low. There were 
enemies in his own stronghold, for he was a harsh 
and autocratic ruler. One day in July, 1856, just as 
he was about to go aboard the U. S. Steamship Mich- 
igan, anchored in his harbor, to pay the officers a 
visit, two men stepped from behind a woodpile and 
fired at him.^ They beat him with their guns as he 
fell, then ran on board the vessel to surrender them- 
selves to justice. They were held prisoners for a 

1 One of these men had been publicly whipped because he stood by his 
wife in her refusal to wear bloomers. 



TEEEITORIAL EVEATS 249 

short time in Mackinac, but were then released 
without trial. 

Both shots took effect, but he did not die at once. 
He gave careful directions about the succession to 
and the government of his kingdom, then asked to 
be taken to Voree to die. Reaching here by a slow, 
tedious journey, he lingered but a few hours, nursed 
by his true wife, who had refused to follow him after 
he began to practise polygamy. He died July 9, 1856. 

He was buried at Voree (now Spring Prairie), 
but his grave is unmarked. To-day naught shows 
the resting-place of royalty but a grass-grown, 
uncared-for, sunken mound. 

When his life went out, the life of the kingdom 
went out. The Gentiles, fearful no longer, came with 
ax and torch, and the royal city was razed to the 
ground. The dwellers in the kingdom fled, some to 
Utah, some to northern Wisconsin, some we know 
not where, and the Gentile fishermen again entered 
into their own. 



CHAPTER XX 

STATEHOOD AND THE BOUNDAEIES 

In a preceding chapter has been told how Wisconsin 
lost the northern peninsula of Michigan, legally and 
geographically hers, because Michigan must be com- 
pensated for her loss to Ohio of a strip along her 
southern border. But Wisconsin did not yield the 
territory without a struggle. 

In 1842, and again in 1843, Governor Doty sent 
a message to the territorial legislature, demanding 
that the "birthright of the state" be at once re- 
stored to her by Congress. The message was 
referred to a committee, which committee in its 
report modestly suggested that Congress recompense 
Wisconsin for the loss of the upper peninsula b}^ 
building a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Mis- 
sissippi Eiver, by improving the Fox- Wisconsin 
waterway, by connecting the Fox and Eock rivers, 
and by constructing harbors on the western shore 
of Lake Michigan at Racine, Southport (Kenosha), 
Milwaukee, Sauk Harbor, Sheboygan and Manitowoc. 

The report goes on to say what would happen 
should these reasonable demands be refused: "We 
could then safely entrench ourselves behind the 
Ordinance of 1787 . . . and take for ourselves and 

250 



STATEHOOD AND THE BOUNDARIES 



251 



WISCONSIN 



Vom Official Records 



''''^^ss^^,^,;^^ 




our state the boundaries fixed by that ordinance, 
form our state constitution, which should be repub- 
lican, apply for admission into the Union witli those 
boundaries, and if refused, so that we could not be a 
state in the Union, we would be a state out of the 
Union, and possess, exercise and enjoy all the rights, 



252 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

l^rivileges and powers of the sovereign, independent 
state of Wisconsin, and, if difficulties must ensue, 
we could appeal with confidence to the great Umpire 
of nations to adjust them. ' ' 

Later on in the report so warlike a tone is assumed 
as to make it seem that the document must have 
been penned in South Carolina instead of in a state 
that twenty years afterward furnished its full quota 
of men to fight valiantly against the logical outcome 
of that very principle of state's rights now so bellig- 
erently proclaimed. Witness the closing sentence: 
Congress is called upon ''to do justice, while yet 
it is not too late, to a people who have hitherto been 
weak and unprotected, but who are rapidly rising to 
giant greatness, and who, at no distant day, will 
show to the world that they lack neither the 
disposition nor the ability to protect themselves." 

In the debate on this report the member from 
Milwaukee suggested that the document be called 
'^ A declaration of war against Great Britain, Illinois, 
Michigan, and the United States.'' 

As may be supposed. Congress paid no attention 
whatever to the report, and Wisconsin obtained 
neither the territory nor the internal improvements 
demanded; nor did she set up a state out of the 
Union, as she had so boldly threatened to do. 

In the convention held in Madison in 1846 to frame 
a constitution, the northeast boundary clause vras 
adopted as it read in the enabling act of Congress. 



STATEHOOD AND THE BOUNDAKIES 253 

This constitution was rejected by the people, but not 
because of the boundaries. 

In 1847-8, another convention for the same purpose 
was lield, and wlien the constitution was finally sub- 
mitted to the people and adopted, the northeast boun- 
dary was identical with that named in the preceding 
one — that is, the present boundary. Thus did this 
dispute close with the state on the losing side. 

No question about the northwestern boundary 
arose until 1846. The citizens of the territory had 
always understood that the Mississippi Eiver to its 
source, and thence a line due north to the British 
possessions, formed the western limit of their 
domain. Had they had any idea that they were to 
be shorn of territory on that side also, it is probable 
that they would have sent powder and shot with the 
report of their committee to Congress. 

In 1846, Wisconsin's territorial delegate in Con- 
gress introduced a bill asking for an act to enable 
the people of the territory to form a constitution 
and a state government. This bill marked the Missis- 
sippi Eiver to its source, and thence due north to the 
British possessions, as the western boundary. 

Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of the committee 
on territories, oiTered an amendment cutting the 
state down to its present boundaries on the north- 
west, on the ground that the territory was too large 
for one state. After a rather stormy debate, the bill 
passed as amended. 



254 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

In the constitutional convention of 1846, there was 
lieatecl debate on the bonndary line, but as the con- 
stitution was finally adopted, the line ran somewhat 
east of the present line. This constitution, as said 
l^efore, was rejected by the people. 

In the convention of 1847-8, the northwestern 
boundary, as adopted and submitted to Congress in 
the constitution, was west of the present line. It 
followed the St. Louis River to the first rapids, as 
does the present boundary, then ran southwesterly 
to the mouth of the Rum River (which empties into 
the Mississippi about twenty-five miles north of 
St. Paul), then followed the Mississippi down to 
42°30'. Had this boundary been accepted by Con- 
gress, St. Paul and Stillwater would have been in 
Wisconsin, as would all of Ramsay and Washington 
counties, and parts of five others. 

Congress rejected this, however, and reaffirmed 
the line of the enabling act — the line as it now stands. 
Thus was Wisconsin again on the losing side. 

As previously stated, Wisconsin tacitly accepted, 
for the time being, the southern boundary she re- 
ceived in 1836, but some of her citizens had no inten- 
tion of being defrauded, without a protest and a 
struggle, of a strip of country sixty-one miles wide. 
Governor Dodge was one of these. 

In 1838, he addressed a memorial to Congress, 
reminding that body that the plain language 
of the Ordinance of 1787 gave the southern end of 



STATEHOOD AND THE BOUNDAEIES 255 

Lake Michigan as the southern limit of the northern 
tier of states. 

Congress paid no attention. 

In 1839, a committee of the council reported reso- 
lutions declaring that Congress had violated the 
Ordinance. The resolutions, therefore, requested 
that the people of the section in question be asked to 
express their opinion on the subject of the boundary 
line. 

Strange as it may seem, the people of these four- 
teen northern counties were enthusiastically in favor 
of joining their fortunes with the Badgers, while the 
people of Wisconsin were either lukewarm or 
ox)posed to the annexation. Before 1841, Mr. Doty, 
as territorial delegate from Wisconsin, tried to get 
a bill before Congress changing the southern boun- 
dary, but the Illinois politicians were too sharp for 
him. They defeated every attempt to get the meas- 
ure before that body. 

After he became governor in 1841, he grew more 
enthusiastic than ever in advocating the pushing of 
the boundary line southward. 

In 1842, the people in the disputed tract, being 
again invited to vote as to their preference, cast five 
hundred seventy votes for and only one against 
joining Wisconsin ! 

In that same year, Governor Doty officially notified 
the governor of Illinois that the fourteen northern 
counties were within the jurisdiction of Wisconsin, 



256 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

and that the jurisdiction of Illinois over the same 
was only "accidental and temporary." 

In spite of Governor Doty's spirited efforts to 
secure the disputed strip, the mass of the people of 
Wisconsin remained indifferent, and when the sub- 
ject of the southern boundary was brought up in the 
conventions of 1846 and 1847-8, that of 42°30' was 
accepted. 

Had Wisconsin secured her ancient boundaries, 
she would have ranked second to none but the 
Empire State in wealth and population. While the 
sense of injustice rankled in the breasts of some of 
her citizens for a few years, it was soon replaced 
by a loyal interest in the preservation of the Union, 
The war cloud threatened, and all questions but that 
of the Union were forgotten. No state was more 
loyal in its support than Wisconsin, who gave freely 
of men and arms when the struggle came. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE UNDERGEOUND RAILEOAD 

In 1850, Congress passed a stringent Fugitive Slave 
act for the arrest and return of slaves escaping into 
northern states. Wisconsin was not on the direct 
road to Canada ; hence, though many of her citizens 
were intense abolitionists, little opportunity was 
given them to express their opinions in deeds. 
Racine was a station on the Underground Railroad, 
but the passengers were few in number. 

In 1854, however, an event occurred which raised 
the people of eastern and southern Wisconsin to a 
high pitch of excitement, and attracted considerable 
attention even in the eastern states. 

Joshua Glover was a runaway slave who was em- 
ployed in a mill a few miles north of Racine, on 
the Milwaukee road. One night in early March, 
Glover was playing cards with three other negroes 
in a cabin near the mill. Soon after dark there 
suddenly appeared at the cabin five white men 
— one of them, named Garland, from Missouri, and 
claiming to be Glover's owner and master, the 
others United States deputy marshals and 
assistants. 

The men attempted to take Glover, and he resisted. 

257 



258 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

In the struggle he was badly cut and bruised, and 
in the end was overpowered, put in irons and thrown 
into an open wagon. It was intended at first to 
take him to Eacine, but, fearing the action of the 
many abolitionists there, Garland and the officers 
decided to take him to Milwaukee. The night was 
very cold, and the sufferings of the wounded negro 
were thus rendered more intense, while the kicks of 
his former master did not tend to lessen his 
discomfort. 

In the early dawn the party reached Milwaukee 
and Glover was roughly cast into the county jail. 
No attempt was made to allay his pain for several 
hours, but finally a physician did volunteer to dress 
his wounds. 

Sherman M. Booth was the editor of a small news- 
paper in the city. A strong abolitionist, when he 
heard of Glover's arrest, which he did early in the 
morning, his indignation was great. All the morning 
he went about the city urging all freemen who were 
opposed to being made slaves or slave-catchers to 
attend a meeting in the courthouse square at 
two o'clock, and distributing handbills printed in his 
office. 

Many stirring speeches were made at this meeting, 
and resolutions were adopted affirming Glover's 
right, in common with all dwellers in the state, to 
the writ of habeas corpus and a trial by jury. 

Such a writ was issued by a local judge, but 



THE UNDEEGEOUXD RATLROAr 259 

neither the Federal court nor the Milwaukee sheriff 
would recognize it. 

In the meantime, word of the arrest had been 
carried to Racine by one of the negroes present at 
the time of the seizure of Glover. Great excitement 
followed the recital of the news, and when it was 
learned that he was in Milwaukee, the sheriff of 
Racine with about one hundred excited citizens char- 
tered a steamer and set out for Milwaukee, reaching 
that city at about five o'clock in the afternoon. 

The Milwaukee crowd had just received word that 
the writ was not recognized as valid. This infuriated 
them. They marched to the jail, the courthouse bell 
adding to the excitement by its clamorous clang, and 
there demanded of the United States deputy marshal 
in charge that he release Glover. 

The marshal refused, and the crowd proceeded 
to help themselves. With ax and crowbar, they 
battered in the door of the weak structure, took 
Glover in charge just at sunset, and sent him, 
strongly guarded, to Waukesha. Here his wounds 
were dressed, and he was soon able to be sent to 
Racine, whence lie made his escape in a short time 
to Canada. 

Booth did not get off so easily. He was arrested 
for aiding a runaway slave to escape, and then re- 
leased on a writ of habeas corpus issued by the State 
Supreme Court. In a speech before the court com- 
missioner, he said: 



260 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



*^I sympathize with the rescuers of Glover and 
rejoice at his escape. I rejoice that, in the first at- 
tempt of the slave-lmnters to convert our jail into a 
slave-pen and our citizens into slave-catchers, they 
have signally failed, and that it has been decided by 
the spontaneous uprising and sovereign voice of the 
■people, that no human being can be dragged into 
bondage from Milwaukee. And I am bold to say 
that, rather than have the writ of habeas corpus and 
the right of trial by jury stricken down by this fugi- 
tive law, I would prefer to see every federal officer 
in Wisconsin hanged on a gallows fifty cubits higher 
than Haman's.'.' 

It now became a struggle between the state and 
the United States courts, the first holding that the 
law (the Fugitive Slave Act) was unconstitutional. 
The affair dragged along until 1860, when Booth 
was again arrested, but was soon pardoned by the 
President. 

As a result of the Glover affair, the state legisla- 
ture passed a law in 1857 making it the duty of 
district attorneys to ' ' use all lawful means to protect 
and defend every person arrested or claimed as a 
fugitive slave." 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE LOST DAUPHIN 

It is a far cry from the throne of France to the wilds 
of Wisconsin ; yet in 1853 there dwelt in Green Bay 
one who claimed to be the heir to the throne of the 
Bourbons. 

After the downfall of the French monarchy, Louis 
XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, were held as 
prisoners of the French Republic in the Temple 
prison. With them were two children, one a girl, 
the other a boy of eight years. Wlien the king and 
queen were taken to the guillotine for execution, 
the children were left without a protector. The 
subsequent history of the daughter is known, but 
that of the son, the heir to the throne, has always 
been shrouded in mystery. It was supposed by many 
that he died in prison in 1795, but yet at the time 
many rumors of his escape were current. 

There lived among the St. Regis Indians of New 
York a young man, a quarter-breed. His great- 
grandmother had been a white woman, one of tlie 
survivors of the Deerfield (Mass.) massacre, who 
was carried into captivity, and finally, as she grew 
to womanhood among her captors, married to a chief- 
tain. This young man, Eleazar Williams by name, 

261 



262 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



was restless and ambitious. He had been successively 
a Eoman Catholic, a Congregationalist, and finally 
an Episcopalian missionary, but he was not satisfied 
with so limited a sphere of action. 

He conceived a scheme of removing the New York 

Indians to Wiscon- 
sin, and there, with 
the Wisconsin In- 
dians, forming a 
great Indian empire. 
He succeeded in in- 
teresting John C. 
Calhoun in his 
scheme, who favored 
it because he thought 
that such an empire 
might prevent the 
forming of any more 
free states out of the 
Northwest Territory. 
The lower Fox was 
decided upon as the 
most desirable place of meeting, and a great council 
of the Winnebago and Menominee Indians was 
called in 1821, and, this being unsatisfactory, an- 
other in 1822. The Winnebagoes withdrew from 
the second council, but the Menominees at last 
granted to the New York Indians joint ownership 
of all their lands. They had no sooner made this 




ELEAZER WILLIAMS 



THE LOST DAUPHIN 263 

most extraordinary concession than they repented. 
Ten years of discussion and difficulties followed, but 
in 1832 Williams brought some Stockbridge and 
Brothertown Indians to the country east of Lake 
AVinnebago, and formed a settlement of some Onei- 
das and Munsees near the mouth of the lower Fox. 

Williams had made Green Bay his home, and here 
in 1823 he had married a young French girl fourteen 
years of age. 

He labored quietly enough among the Indians for 
some years. It is supposed that a chance remark 
about his resemblance to the royal Bourbons of 
France awakened his dormant ambition, but it was 
not for many years, not until 1853, in fact, that 
Williams began to pose as the long-lost dauphin, 
Louis XVII of France. Curiously enough, Williams 
was able to show on his person, even to the minutest 
detail, the various scars and marks which the lost 
prince would have borne if alive. 

In 1853, Williams wrote an account of himself, and 
there maintained that, twelve years before, the 
Prince de Joinville, the third son of King Louis 
Philippe, had visited him at Green Bay and had 
then acknowledged the royal birth of the writer and 
his claim to the throne of France. He relates with 
careful attention to detail how de Joinville, in the 
course of his visit, produced a document written in 
French and English, and asked him to sign it. 

Williams says: ''This was a solemn abdication 



2Q4: THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

of the crown of France in favor of Louis Philippe. " 
In return for this great sacrifice, Williams 
states, he was to receive a princely mansion either in 
France or in this country, and a restoration of all 
the i^rivate property of the royal family. Williams 
declares that he refused to sign away his royal 
rights. 

Williams's strange silence for twelve years rather 
invalidates his claim, but his account when published 
attracted great attention both in this country and in 
France. Much was said and much was written on 
tlie subject, but there seems little evidence, except 
of a circumstantial nature, that the story was other 
than the product of the man's own imagination.' The 
Prince de Joinville, when shown the account, em- 
phatically denied having said or done what Williams 
reported him as saying and doing, and there the 
story rests. 

The royal claimant enjoyed a brief season of noto- 
riety, moved into a cottage built for him by admiring 
friends, was a nine days' wonder, then ceased to 
interest any one. He died in 1858, friendless and 
alone, in poverty and neglect. 



1 "The Lost rrinco." by Hanson, is a story of Eleazar Williams, an( 
'Lazarre," a novel by Mary Hartwell Catherwood. has the same hero. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

CIVIL WAR INCIDENTS 

It is not within the scope of this little volume to give 
in detail Wisconsin's part in the Civil War. Suffi- 
cient to say that the governor's call for a regiment 
brought immediate response from thirty-six compa- 
nies. Before the struggle ended, over ninety 
thousand men had been to the front, or one for 
every nine men in the state. As to their conduct in 
battle, General William T. Sherman's comment in his 
Memoirs may serve as testimony. He says : 

''We estimated a Wisconsin regiment equal to an 
ordinary brigade." 

The Iron Brigade was composed of five regiments, 
three of them being from Wisconsin. It received its 
name in this wise : 

In the battle of South Mountain, in 1862, General 
McClellan was looking from his headquarters along 
the road toward the mountain. General Hooker 
came dashing up. General McClellan asked : 

"What troops are those advancing on each side of 
the road, near the gorge, under that murderous 
fire?" 

"That," was the answer, "is Gibbon's brigade of 
men from Wisconsin and Indiana." 

265 



2e6 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

''They must be made of iron/^ said McClellan. 

"By the eternal !'' replied Hooker, "they are iron, 
and if you had seen them at second Bull Eun, as I 
did, you would know them to be of iron.'' 

From that time on the brigade bore the name of 
the Iron Brigade/ It earned its title. No other 
Wisconsin regiment suffered such terrible losses in 
killed and wounded. 

General E. S. Bragg says of them : 

' ' Antietam closed a period of forty-five days dur- 
ing which we had fought or been under fire eleven 
days and had been engaged in four pitched battles. 
At Antietam the brigade was almost obliterated, but 
it was built up again, and kept up its reputation in 
succeeding campaigns." 

A conspicuous character in Wisconsin's war his- 
tory was Old Abe, the pet eagle of the Eighth Wis- 
consin Eegiment. He was captured when young by 
an Indian on the Flambeau Eiver. The story of his 
life is told by H. W. Eood in the Wisconsin Memorial 
Day pamphlet of 1904, from which the extracts 
following are made. 

"The wife of the man into whose possession the 
young eagle first came thus relates the incident: 

" 'Yes,' said she, 'I guess it was along in April 
when Chief Sky and a few other Indians came to 
our house up at Jim Falls and wanted to sell us a 
young bird they called an eagle. He wasn't old 

1 Henry E. Legler. 



Cj' f 



^■t% 




OLD ABE 



CIVIL WAR INCIDENTS 367 

enough tlien to fly. I told them I thought it was a 
crow, but they declared it was an eagle. I told them 
I had no use for him, anyhow, but they were still 
anxious to make a trade. Then I said I'd give them 
the bag of corn there — oh, I guess there was about a 
bushel of it, — and so they took the corn and left the 
bird. As he couldn't fly, it was not much trouble to 
keep him. But it was not long before he could use 
his wings a little, and then he'd bother us about 
getting away. Sometimes he 'd get clear down below 
the falls, as much as half a mile away, and the 
children would have to keep running after him to 
prevent him from getting away from us for good. 
He got to be ugly, too, and we had to tie him up. 

^' ^ After a w^hile he came to be so much of a plague 
that we made up our minds to get rid of him in 
some way. My husband took him down to Chippewa 
Falls and tried to sell him to some soldiers that were 
going to the war; but they didn't want him. After 
that he went down to Eau Claire and sold him to 
the soldiers there. I never saw him again. I've 
heard that folks have made a great deal of fuss 
over him since then. ' 

' ' The bird was sold to the soldiers for two dollars 
and a half, and the company's name was changed to 
the Eau Claire Eagles. On the way to Madison to 
join the other companies the captain of the Eagles 
was offered two hundred dollars for the bird, but 
the would-be purchaser was told that the eagle was 



268 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

not for sale. Later in the eagle 's life, the same reply 
was made to an offer of ten tlionsand dollars, and 
again to one of twenty thousand dollars. 

^'A perch was made for Old Abe to stand on. It 
was in the form of a shield fastened like a slanting 
platform on the top of a five-foot staff. Six inches 
above the shield there was a crosspiece for a perch. 
The stars and stripes were painted on this shield, 
also the letters, '8th Eeg. W. V.^ A man was 
detailed to take care of Old Abe and carry him on 
the march. He wore a belt with a socket attached. 
Into this socket he set the bottom of the staff and 
held it erect with his right hand. In this way Old 
Abe was lifted np into plain sight above the heads 
of the men. His place in the line of march was in 
the center of the regiment by the side of the flag. 
He and his perch made quite a heavy load for the 
man who carried him. 

''When the Eighth got to St. Louis, some of the 
southern folks there tried to make fun of Old Abe 
by calling him 'crow,' 'goose' and 'turkey buzzard.' 
He seemed not to like either the names or the crowd. 
He stooped, spread his wings, made a spring and 
broke the cord that held him, flew over the heads 
of his tormentors, flapped off several caps with his 
wings, and then, flying to the top of the chimney 
of an aristocratic mansion, looked down with a seem- 
ing contempt upon the people below him. He seemed 
to say, 'You see I am neither crow, goose nor baz- 



CIVIL WAR INCIDENTS 269 

zard, but the American liberty bird ! ' This sudden 
dash for freedom created no small stir among the 
soldiers, especially those of Company C. They were 
afraid he was too much of a liberty bird to stay with 
them. But after an hour of sightseeing from his 
high perch he flew down to the ground and was easily 
caught by one of the men. 

''Old Abe's daily degree of freedom in camp was 
as much as he could get out of thirty feet of stout 
cord. One end of this cord was tied to a leather 
ring around his leg, the other fastened to his perch. 
While on the march or in battle he was allowed only 
about three feet of this cord. He sometimes longed 
for more freedom, and, having a spite against the 
cord that held him, would keep biting it with his 
strong hooked beak till it was nearly cut in two. 
Then, with a sudden spring, he would break loose. 

"Once he broke away just as the regiment was 
starting on a march. He flew away up into the 
air, around and around. Everybody was excited. 
Many men left the ranks, running here and there 
where they thought he would alight, so as to catch 
him. Some of them went into the woods a mile or 
two away, thinking he might come do^rn among the 
trees. Ed Homaston, his keeper, persuaded the rest 
of the men to keep cool and let him manage the 
capture. He had the regimental colors put in a place 
where Old Abe could see them, and then got down 
beside them with his perch. Having enjoyed an hour 



270 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

of good exercise, the runaway — or flyaway, perhaps 
I should say, — quietly settled to the ground beside 
the flag. After a bit of gentle coaxing he hopped 
up to his perch and was ready for the march to 
Memphis. ' ' 

He accompanied the regiment in all its marches 
and personally supervised thirty-six battles and 
skirmishes. He seemed to bear a charmed life, and 
Lowell's words concerning Washington, — 

Whose red surge sought but couM not overwhelm, — 

might well apj^ly to him, for though many enemies 
aimed their muskets at him as he soared high over 
the field of battle, he was never seriously harmed. 
His wild screams sounded above the din of battle 
and spurred the Wisconsin soldiers to fiercer 
conflict. 

Harper's Weekly has this to say of the now famous 
eagle : 

*^When the battle raged most fiercely and the 
enthusiasm of the soldiers was at its highest, then 
it was that Old Abe seemed to be in his element. 
He flapped his wings in the midst of the furious 
storm, and with head erect faced the flying bullets 
and the crashing shells with no sign of fear. Old 
Abe triumphs with the triumph of the flag, and seems 
in some measure conscious of his relationship with 
the emblem of a victorious republic.'' 

Mr. Rood tells how Old Abe was taken care of 
after the war : 



CIVIL WAE INCIDENTS 271 

"In three years the term of service of the most of 
the men of the Eighth came to a close, and it was 
thought best to send Old Abe home with them. Then 
the question arose, What shall be Old Abe's home 
after this ? Some of the men were in favor of giving 
him to Eau Claire County; others suggested that 
he be sent to be cared for by the general government 
at Washington; and still others wished to present 
him to the state of Wisconsin. A vote was taken 
and it was unanimously decided that Old Abe should 
be given into the care of the state. And so at three 
o 'clock on the 26tli day of September, 1864, Captain 
Victor Wolf, of Company C of the Eighth, formally 
presented to the state of Wisconsin the famous war 
eagle Old Abe. Captain Wolf said he had been a 
good soldier, and had never flinched from duty either 
in the camp or the battle; that Company C had 
always taken good care of him, and that he hoped 
the state would do as well by him. Governor Lewis, 
in behalf of the state, received Old Abe and assured 
Captain Wolf that the state would ever be proud of 
its soldier bird and give him the best of care. 

' ' A large room in the basement of the Capitol was 
fitted for Old Abe's use and a man was appointed 
to take care of him. Everything was done for his 
comfort. A pole was fastened to two posts in the 
park, and on pleasant days he was kept there in the 
open air. There he was visited by thousands of 
people from all parts of the country. ' ' 



272 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

Old Abe was exhibited at many state fairs, also 
at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, and at the Old 
South Church Fair, in Boston, 1878-9. He lived until 
March, 1881. After his death his body was stuffed 
and placed in the rooms of the State Historical 
Society in the Capitol at Madison, and later in the 
Gr. A. E. Memorial Hall in the same building. Un- 
fortunately he was not saved when that building 
partially burned in 1904. 

One of the many interesting incidents of Old Abe's 
life after the war is thus told by Mr. Kood : 

''One day about five years after the war I was 
standing on the street corner over there when I 
heard a man say to three or four companions he 
had with him, 'Say, boys, let's go over to the Capitol 
and see Old Abe. I was in the army with him, and 
I haven't seen him since the war. Come on, boys!' 

"Now, I just thought I would like to see this man 
meet his old friend the eagle, and so I walked quickly 
around another way to where he sat on his perch 
near the building. As the men came along they got 
sight of him before he saw them. The old soldier 
gave a peculiar whistle. Quick as a flash Old Abe 
straightened himself up and listened intently. He 
had evidently heard a familiar sound. The man 
gave the whistle again. Old Abe became excited. 
He looked all about to see whence that well-known 
whistle came. His eye was bright, his head erect, 
and he seemed all expectation. Just then the men 



CIVIL WAE INCIDENTS 373 

walked up before him. He recognized at once the 
man who had been in the war with him, and showed 
his delight in many ways. The old soldier was 
delighted, too, to find that his feathered comrade had 
not forgotten him. Wlien he went up close Old Abe 
put his head in a loving way beside his face and 
seemed as pleased as a young kitten to be fondled 
and petted. This token of affection touched the old 
soldier's heart. He put his arms around Old Abe 
and the tears ran down his cheeks. 'Boys,' said he, 
'I would not have missed this for a hundred 
dollars!' " 

Company F of the Seventh Wisconsin Regiment 
had an interesting experience at the battle of Gettys- 
burg, which Bret Harte has narrated in his poem 
"John Burns of Gettysburg." 

On that July day in 1863, when the fight was 
raging most fiercely, there came up to the men of 
Company F a quaint-looking old man who 

* * * wore au ancient long buff vest, 

Yellow as saffron — but his best; 

And, buttoned over his manly breast 

Was a bright blue coat, Avith a rolling collar, 

And large gilt buttons — size of a dollar — 

With tails that the country folk called * ' swaller. ' ' 

He wore a broad-brimmed, bell-crowned hat, 

White as the locks on which it sat. 

He looked like a soldier of the Revolution come 
back to fight his country's battles. He asked one of 
the men to lend him a gun, but was only laughed at. 



274 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

Finally one of the officers handed limi a gun and 
ammunition. The poet thus describes what followed ; 

('lose at his elbows all that day 

Veterans of the Peninsula, 

Sunburnt and bearded, charged away, 

And striplings, downy of lip and chin, — 

Clerks that the Home Guard mustered in, — 

Glanced, as the}' passed, at the hat he wore, 

Then at the rifle his right hand bore. 

And hailed him, from out their youthful lore, 

' ' How are you. White Hat ? " " Put her through ! ' ' 

' ^ Your head 's level ! ' ' and ' ' Bully for you ! ' ' 

Called him ''Daddy," — and begged he'd disclose 

The name of the tailor who made his clothes, 

And what was the value he set on those; 

While Burns, unmindful of jeer and scoff, 

Stood there picking the rebels off, — 

With his long brown rifle and bell-crowned hat, 

And the swallow-tails they were laughing at. 

'Twas but a moment, for that respect 
Which clothes all courage their voices checked; 
And something the wildest could understand 
Spoke in the old man 's strong right hand, 
And his corded throat, and the lurking frown 
Of his eyebrows under his old bell-crown. 
Until, as they gazed, there crept an awe 
Through the ranks in whispers, and some men saw 
In the antique vestments and long white hair. 
The Past of the Nation in battle there. 

Near the close of the war the. First AVisconsin 
Cavalry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Harnden, reaped 
some renown through being selected to aid in the 
capture of the fleeing president of the Confederacy, 
Jefferson Davis. Realizing that his cause was lost, 
Davis was seeking escape either by the Atlantic or 
the Gulf. 

Unionists were closely watching all roads and fer- 



CIVIL WAE INCIDENTS 275 

ries in Georgia, and Colonel Plarnden's detachment 
was sent to Dublin, on the Oconee River, with orders 
to march with the greatest possible speed, scouring 
the country as he proceeded. 

At Dublin the over-cordiality of the white people 
awakened the colonel's suspicions. About midnight 
a negro crept into his tent and told how a mysterious 
party of men, women and children had that day 
been ferried across the river. Becoming convinced 
that the negro's surmises as to the identity of the 
persons in the party were correct, the colonel with 
seventy cavalrymen started along the river road in 
pursuit, while he sent sixty men toward the seacoast. 

The colonel and his men did not have an easy ride. 
The road was one in name only, in places leading 
through creeks and swamps. A heavy rain the next 
morning added to the difficulty they had in following 
it. They rested a few hours that night, but three 
o'clock found them again in saddle, and, as they 
learned when they reached the Ocmulgee River, but 
three hours behind the fugitives. 

A leaky ferry delayed their crossing two hours. 
A little below the ferry, while they were feeding their 
horses, the advance guard of the Fourth Michigan 
Cavalry under Colonel Pritchard, bound on the same 
errand, came up. Colonel Harnden, by virtue of 
his two days upon the trail, claimed the right of way. 
Colonel Pritchard granted the justice of his claim, 
and the Wisconsin men pushed forward. 



276 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

Colonel Pritcliard led his detachment by another 
route, but both squads came up to the Davis camp 
at the same time. Each supposing the other to be 
Davis ^s armed escort, commenced firing. Two of 
the Michigan men were killed and three of the Wis- 
consin men severely wounded before the mistake was 
discovered. . 

The Michigan men were the first to surround the 
Davis camp. A woman came to the door of one of 
the tents and asked if her servant might go for some 
water. 

"Consent was given, whereupon out came a tall 
person, with a lady's waterproof overdress on and 
a small brown shawl on the head, a tin pail on the 
right arm and a colored woman leaning on the left 
arm. 

"This tall person was stooping over as if to 
appear shorter; I at once concluded it must be Davis 
in disguise. They started off east toward the creek, 
where the brush was very thick. As they were going 
they had to pass several soldiers who were straggling- 
round the camp. 

"I sat still on my horse, expecting that some of the 
soldiers would halt them as they passed by; but 
such was not the case, for they passed all of the 
soldiers without being noticed. 

"Then I galloped my horse around the north side 
of the tent and, passing to their left, halted them. 
Just at this time there came riding up to us two of 



CIVIL WAR INCIDENTS 277 

our soldiers. They made a few remarks to the tall 
person. He turned his face a little toward me, and 
I saw his gray mustache. We told him his disguise 
would not succeed. Then Davis and the colored 
woman started back toward the tents. As Davis got 
about half way back to the tent, we were met by some 
of our men, who had just discovered that Jefferson 
Davis had tried to escape in disguise."^ 

A word as to the loyalty and patriotism of our 
foreign-born citizens during this time of stress and 
strain may well be said. Germans, Scandinavians, 
Irishmen, Frenchmen and even Indians marched 
under the Stars and Stripes, adding the glory of 
their brave sacrifice to the fame of the Badger State. 
Incidents of individual bravery are numerous, but 
all fought nobly for the lionor of their adopted 
fatherland. 

1 From account by William P. Stedman, Fourth Michigan Cavalry. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

OUR INDUSTEIES 

The history of Wisconsin since the war has been, 
on the whole, an uneventful one, unless grow^th and 
almost uninterrupted prosperity may be reckoned as 
events. During the last half century, the state has 
developed her abundant resources, trebled her popu- 
lation, improved her educational facilities, and 
multiplied many fold her material wealth. 

In the first two centuries of her history, Wiscon- 
sin's industrial life was summed up in two words — 
fur trade. Following this primitive industry, lead 
mining attracted thousands to the southwestern por- 
tion of the state, with visions of unbounded wealth, 
and the spade and pick displaced the trap, bow and 
gun. A quarter of a century of wasteful mining, 
however, seemingly exhausted the supply, and the 
industry was abandoned.^ 

But pioneers were already clearing the land along 
navigable streams and around the numerous lakes, 
and planting thereon crojDs of wheat, barley, rye, 
corn, and oats, thus laying the foundation of agri- 

1 These mines have been reopened in the last ten years, and lead and 
zinc mining resumed on a large scale. Improved methods of mining and 
modern machinery are rapidly placing Wisconsin in an important position 
among the lead and zinc producinj,^ states. 

278 



OUR INDUSTRIES 



279 



cultural life and permanent settlement, for only when 
they began to till the soil did the pioneers bring 
their families and begin to build homes. Before 
this, Wisconsin was only a hunting-ground, a fur 
marketi3lace, a mining-camp. 

At the present day, while other industrial products 




A FARM IN NOJtTHERN WISCONSIN 



outrank in value those of agriculture, Wisconsin 
has no mean rank as an agricultural state. A glance 
at the following table will show that her average 
yield per acre in staple p-roducts is fully equal to, 
and in many instances above, that of her sister 
states in the upper Mississippi valley. Her average 
is much greater than that of the United States as a 
whole. 



280 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



state 













































































o 


^ 








P^ 


U 


O 


W 


K 


S-2.1 


35.5 


18.8 


82.7 


24.5 


15.5 


74.6 


34.7 


13.8 


84.8 


26.7 


16.1 


72.7 


33.9 


12.2 


31 


24.6 


13.9 


80.1 


34.5 


12.2 


82.5 


26.9 


16.6 


75 


27.5 


12.7 


22.5 


19.8 


13.9 


80.8 


32.4 


14.2 


31 


25.6 


17.6 


78.7 


22 


18.7 


28.9 


19.6 


13.4 


88.1 


28 


15.4 


27.9 


24.1 


16.6 


81.3 


25.8 


11.1 


30.4 


25 


15.9 


94.8 


22.6 


12.1 


26.1 


33.5 


14.9 


86.6 


29.1 


18.3 


88.3 


26.4 


18.7 


92.8 


33.2 


15.7 


34.9 


28.9 


16.1 


75.4 


25.2 


13.5 


29.6 


25.1 


15.4 



w 





C 




o 


« 




cd 




h 


03 






* 






1.33 




1.36 




1.38 




1.36 


7.8 


1.33 


11.4 


1..58 


8 


1.45 


10.2 


1.61 


11.2 


1.34 


11.6 


1.48 


11.8 


1.67 


18 


1.53 


11.2 


1.47 



Michigan 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Missouri 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Nebraska 

South Dakota 

North Dakota 

Minnesota 

Wisconsin 

Average for U. S. 



14.6 
16.9 
16.7 
14.7 
15 
15.3 
*12.7 
15.4 

tii.'i 

14.7 
15.3 
18.1 



709 
806 
615 
635 
670 



1,349 
797 



♦Average for years 1901-1905 inclusive. 

tAverage for the years 1901-1904 inclusive. 

§ Average for the years 1900-1904 inclusive. 

**For the year 1905 only. No figures for other years obtainable. 



That good prices for these products have been 
realized is proved by the subjoined table, which 
shows the average earnings per acre for the years 
1896 to 1905 inclusive : 



Michigan 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Missouri 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Nebraska 

South Dakota .... 

North Dakota 

Minnesota 

Wisconsin 

Average for U. S. 



|$31.08 

36.92 

I 34.15 

I 39.26, 

I 34.96 

I 30.521 

37.72 

I 31.90| 

I 30.10 

33.771 

30.56 

39.09 

43.31 



56 
70 
31 
44 

9.011 8.54 
9.261 8.971 



$7. 



$7.r 



$52.98 

64.27 

50.09 

8.361 11.541 8.461 9.41| 1 10.78| 40.28 



8.00 



00 

541 
15| 7 
471 7. 
72 6. 
21 6. 



$11.64 
11.61 
10.81 



.50|10.09|$6.79| 

461 9.271 

24 9.61 
41 9.55 



5.961 69. 7S 

iA7\ 

5.191 

5-42 



7.57 


6.45 


9.30 


5.04 


7.46 


6.32 


7.12 9.74 


5.68 


8.65 


8.29 


7.87 9.71 


8.56 


11.91 


7.98 


8.17 11.83 


11.55 


10.35 


8.10 


8.58 9.45 


11.54 



104.82 



The presence of vast areas of pine forests with 
their promise of untold riches for those who would 



OUK INDUSTRIES 281 

fell the timber and make it into lumber, has deter- 
mined the industrial character of the northern and 
western portions of the state, and is still doing so. 
The last half of the nineteenth century has seen 
Wisconsin leading the United States in the lumber 
industry. For the past two decades she has outdone 
all the other states in the Union in the manufacture 
of lumber and timber products, but she cannot long 
hold the foremost place, for wasteful cutting and fail- 
ure to replant denuded areas are fast laying bare her 
lands, drying up her streams, changing her climate 
and destroying much of her scenic beauty. For- 
tunately, both the state and the nation have realized 
the danger, though tardily, and are striving to 
counteract the effects of selfish greed and wasteful 
methods by reforestation and stringent protective 
forest laws. 

The department of state forestry was created in 
1903, and some forty thousand acres of land in four 
northern counties were reserved from sale and held 
as a forest reserve. In 1905, by a new act, a State 
Board of Forestry was created, and one hundred 
ninety-four thousand seventy-two acres more were 
reserved in seventeen different counties. In 1906, 
Congress passed a bill granting to the state for 
forestry purposes twenty thousand acres of vacant 
government land, thus increasing the total reserve to 
two hundred fifty-four thousand seventy-two acres. 

The two most important aims of forestry are ''to 



282 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

conserve the forests by wise use and to protect the 
water supply." To secure these two ends, the state 
must acquire large forest areas at the headwaters 
of rivers, and restock all denuded areas as soon as 
the slash is destroyed. 

One of the important principles of forestry is that 




WINTER SCENE IN A LOGGING CAMP 
Courtesy of Edward Hines Lumber Company 

no land which is suitable for agriculture shall be 
permanently held under forests, so that it can be 
readily seen that the work of the Forestry Board 
in reserving forest lands, using as it does land fit 
for nothing else, is wholly beneficent. The timber 
will be judiciously cut from these lands from time to 
time, thus giving the younger trees room for growth, 



OUE INDUSTEIES 



283 




LOADING IN THE WOODS 
Courtesy of Edward Hines Lumber Company 



and at the same time affording employment to nearby 
settlers. 

The Forestry Board is co-operating with the 
national government to secure carefnl cutting of 
the timber on the Indian reservations also, and thus 
in all ways is endeavoring to build prosperity for 
the future, instead of greedily seeking only present 
gain. 

Pine, once so plentiful all over the northern and 
central sections of the state, is fast becoming scarce. 
A corresponding increase in the price has made the 
value of the diminished product as great as formerly. 



284 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



An instance of this increase of value is related in 
connection with some Wisconsin Central lands. The 
pine was cut from this property at a good profit. 
A few years later, on this same land, another com- 
pany operated, cutting the timber rejected by the 




HAULING LOGS 

Courtesy of Edward Hines Lumber Company 



first company, and made a good profit. A little later, 
the same process was repeated by a third company, 
and still a good profit was made. In fact, the third 
company is said to have cleared as much money as 
tlie first, of course because of the increase in the 
value of pine. 



OUE INDUSTRIES 



285 




A IJM; roXI) AND SAWMILL 
Coui'tesy of Edward Iliiies Lumbei- Couipany 

It has been asserted that Wisconsin's forest indus- 
tries have ''built every foot of railroad and wagon 
road, every town, school and church, and cleared 
half of the improved land in north Wisconsin." This 
statement is, in all probability, largely if not wholly 
true. 

The Forestry Board has one other enemy to fight 
besides the ''lumber kings," and this is fire. Forest 
fires have aided in the destruction of large wooded 
tracts. In 1871 occurred one of the most disastrous 







• c 



^ F^ 






OUE INDUSTEIES 287. 

in the liistory of the world. Not a drop of rain had 
fallen in northern Wisconsin from eJnly 8 to Octo- 
])er 9 of that year. Wells dried up, rivers became 
mere rills or only dry beds. Everything was like 
tinder and needed only a spark to start a sheet of 
flame. The people of Brown, Door, Oconto, Shawano, 
Manitowoc and Kewaunee connties fought fires until 
their energies were exhausted. Many dug holes in 
the ground and crawled in for refuge from the flames, 
while others protected themselves in dried-up wells. 

On October 8, a hot southerly wind carried the 
flames for miles, and thousands of acres were on fire 
at once. Over a thousand people lost their lives, 
and nearly as many were crippled. The property 
loss cannot be estimated. The town of Peshtigo was 
wiped out of existence, only one unfinished house 
being left standing. Other forest fires have occurred 
since, but none so destructive as this of 1871, and 
none such are likely to occur again, for the forestry 
law makes the state forester also the state fire 
warden, with power to appoint deputies where they 
shall be needed. Over three hundred fire wardens 
have thus far been appointed, and they have done 
excellent work in posting notices, fighting forest fires, 
and warning the settlers against carelessness in 
burning brush. 

An industry which has shown marvelous growth 
during the last twenty years is dairying. The pio- 
neers in this work were Iliram Smith, of She])oygan 



288 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

County, a practical farmer, and W. D. Hoard, of 
JefPerson County, editor of a paper devoted to dairy 
interests, and later governor of the state. These 
men, with a very few others, began to agitate the 
dairy question in 1870, and from then on, in season 
and out of season, urged the farmers of eastern and 
southern Wisconsin to substitute dairying for grain 
raising, on the plea that the conditions of soil and 
climate were better adapted to the former industry. 

One by one, the farmers began to adopt the ideas 
of these men. They improved their stock, built co- 
operative cheese factories, and before long the 
wisdom of their procedure was proved l^y substantial 
cash returns. Later, co-operative creameries for the 
manufacture of butter were advocated, and the 
farmers, made wiser by experience, more readily 
adopted this suggestion. 

The State Dairymen's Association was organized 
in 1872 with a membership of six. This association 
has steadily increased in numbers and influence, its 
labors being rewarded by seeing Wisconsin second 
in the Union in the value of her dairy products, 
being surpassed only by New York. A creamery 
or cheese factory at every cross-roads is now a 
prominent feature of the landscape in the eastern, 
southern and western sections of the state. Wis- 
consin is easily first in the United States in this 
respect. 

To the State Dairvmen's Association is due the 



OUR INDUSTRIES 



289 



^ MAP 

SHOWING THE LOCATION 




ISStED BY 

\sl&. EXPT. STATION 
WiamiRYXFOOD COM. 

KKY NUMBER 

■CHEtSr, FACTORIES 1640 
•CREAMtUltS 1017 

•COMBINED KACTORIES 40 
» SKIM STATIONS . 260 

•CO.NUtNSERIES 3 

TOTAL 8969 



credit of recommending and securing the inaugura- 
tion of the Dairy School in connection with the School 
of Agriculture at the State University, Madison, and 
to-day Wisconsin points with pride to the fact that 
not only was she the pioneer in this movement, but 
slie has the best dairy school in the world. 



290 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

This association also recommended and secured 
an annual appropriation by the state legislature 
for a series of farmers' institutes, skilled .instruc- 
tion and inspiration to better methods being- brought 
through this agency to each farmer's door. From 
November 1 to April 30, these gatherings are held 
in different parts of the state. Improved methods of 
farming, as the direct effect of these institutes, show 
that expenditure of money for their support has 
justified itself. 

This association has secured the establishment of a 
Dairy and Food Commission, which commission not 
only has achieved much in strengthening state laws 
concerning the sale of fraudulent imitations of dairy 
products and prohibiting the sale of adulterated 
foods and drugs, but, through its system of inspec- 
tion of creameries and cheese factories, has done 
a great deal to secure and maintain a high grade of 
butter and cheese. 

To this association is due the credit of securing 
the passage of the state law making the elements of 
agriculture a branch to be taught in every common 
school in Wisconsin. 

Lack of space makes detailed accounts of each 
industry in the state impossible. Brief mention can 
be made of only some of the most important. 

The value of flouring and grist mill products is 
second only to that of lumber and timber products, 
these mills representing an investment of ten million 



OUR INDUSTETES 291 

dollars. Wisconsin must yield to Minnesota the 
credit of having the largest milling center in the 
United States — Minneapolis — but she can claim the 
second and third — Superior and Milwaukee. Wis- 
consin flour not only has a market at home and in 
every state in the Union, but is sold in almost every 
village in the British Isles and northern Europe. 

Another important industry, paper and wood pulp 
making, claims an investment of twenty million dol- 
lars. Wisconsin ranks fifth among the thirty-four 
states which manufacture these two products. The 
chief seat of this industry is the Fox valley, the 
mills of which use one hundred thousands cords of 
logs annually; but the output of the mills on the 
Wisconsin and Marinette rivers also is large. At 
first, poplar wood was used for the making of pulp, 
but it has been displaced by spruce. Wisconsin mills 
can turn out two and a half million pounds of paper 
and pulp daily. 

The tanning of leather is another of the state's 
leading industries, Milwaukee claiming the largest 
tanneries in the world. About sixty per cent of the 
output of tanned hides goes to Boston, the center 
of the boot and shoe industry. The history of the 
tanning industry during the last fifty years is thus 
summed up by one of the largest firms engaged in the 
business : 

'^ Fifty years ago, this country was so rough and 
new that bark necessary for tanning could be fairly 



292 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

carried by the workmen from the forest to the mill, 
but now to feed our immense system of tanneries 
it requires over thirty thousand cords of bark an- 




GOVERNOR DAVIDSON'S TOBACCO FIELD 



nually, carried hundreds of miles by a small fleet 
of vessels kept busy nearly all the months of 
navigation. 

''It takes annually over forty thousand cattle 
hides, four hundred fifty thousand skins, and sixty 
thousand horsehides to keep our five big tanneries 



OUR INDUSTEIES 293 

running, and more than thirteen hundred men are 
kept busy handling this vast amount of material. 

^'From a modest beginning, fifty years ago, our 
company has grown so rapidly that instead of using 
two cords of bark per week, it uses now one hundred 
cords per day. Instead of working in fifty hides every 
six days, the great vats must now be ready for three 
thousand hides and fifteen hundred skins every 
twenty-four hours." 

Some idea of how this industry helps others may 
be gained from the fact that the Milwaukee tan- 
neries alone use one hundred thousand cords of hem- 
lock bark a year. This means the felling of at least 
five hundred thousand trees annually, thus employ- 
ing choppers, peelers, laborers and teams, besides 
vessel crews. 

An immense capital is invested in the manufacture 
of iron and steel products. Engines, agricultural 
implements, stoves and furnaces, hardware, pumps, 
nails, wire, brewing, malting and milling machinery, 
wagons, carriages and sleighs are only a few of the 
state's manufactured products into which iron and 
steel enter. 

The Lake Superior ore is the richest known, and 
its mining is an important industry. The period of 
wild speculation in the Gogebic mines in 1886-7 has 
been succeeded by a steady profit-making era, and 
the supply of ore bids fair to last for many years. 

The manufacture of malt liquors has been so per- 



294 THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

sistently advertised as the state's leading industry, 
and especially as that of Milwaukee, that it may 
surprise some to learn that malt liquors are only 
sixth in value of output among "Wisconsin's manufac- 
tured products, being outranked by lumber and 
timber products, flouring and grist mill products, 
foundry and machine shop products, dairy products, 
and leather products, in the order named. 

Geographically, Wisconsin is advantageously 
placed with respect to markets. Her railroads are 
accessible from all sections of the state. On the 
western border is the Mississippi River, a waterway 
that exercises a restraining influence on freight rates, 
even though its carrying trade is not great. From 
her ports on Lakes Superior and Michigan, the prod- 
ucts of the farms, factories, mines, mills and quarries 
of the state are shipped by water to the East. 



OHAPTEK XXV 

OUR GOVEENMENT, OUR PEOPLE, AND OUR SCHOOLS 

The constitution of Wisconsin was adopted March 
13, 1848. 

The State Legislature consists of two houses, the 
Senate and Assembly. The Senate consists of thirty- 
three members elected for four years, and the As- 
sembly of one hundred members elected for two 
years. 

The legislative sessions are biennial, beginning on 
the first Monday in January of the odd-numbered 
years. 

Each member receives for his services during a 
regular session ^ve hundred dollars and ten cents for 
every mile traveled along the most usual route in 
going to and returning from the session. No 
stationery, postage or other perquisite is allowed. 

The executive power is vested in a Governor and 
Lieutenant-Governor, who are elected for two years. 

The administrative power is vested in a Secretary 
of State, Treasurer, Attorne}^ General, State Super- 
intendent, and Insurance Commissioner, elected ])y 
the people. 

Among other administrative officers, but appointed 
by the governor, are the Commissioner of Labor, 

295 



296 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



Census and Industrial Statistics, the Adjutant Gen- 
eral, the Quartermaster General, the Supervisor of 
Inspectors of Illuminating Oils, the Dairy and Food 
Commissioner, the Commissioner of Banking, the 
Superintendent of Public Property, and the Com- 
missioner of Immigration. 

Among the administrative boards, appointed by 



WrTT'^ 



i i ^ i 1 1 1 i i c 



fr r 



III III 




-%v mm 






STATE HISTORICAL LIBRARY, MADISON 



the governor, are the Fisheries Commission (seven 
members for six years) ; the State Board of Health 
(seven members for seven years) ; the Board of Uni- 
versity Eegents (one from each Congressional dis- 
trict and two at large for three years) ; the Board of 
Eegents of Normal Schools (nine members for three 
years) ; the State Board of Control (six members for 



OUR GOA^ERNMENT, PEOPLE, SCHOOLS 297 




MAIN BUILDING, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 



five years), which has cliarge of tlie Hospitals for the 
Insane at Oshkosh and Mendota, the State Prison at 
Waiipim, the State School for Dependent Children 
at Sparta, the State School for the Feeble-minded 
at Chippewa Falls, the Industrial School for Boys 
at Wankesha, the School for the Deaf at Delavan, 
the State School for the Blind at Janesville, the Wis- 
consin State Keformatory at Green Bay, and the 
Wisconsin State Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Wales ; 
the State Eailroad Commission; the State Board of 
Agriculture; the State Board of Forestry; the State 
Alining School Board; the State Civil Service Com- 
mission, and the State Tax Commission. 

The judicial department consists of a Supreme 



298 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 



Court : superior courts ; circuit courts ; courts of pro- 
bate (county courts); justices' courts; municipal 
courts, and police courts. 

The Supreme Court is composed of a chief justice 




COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 



and four associate justices chosen at the spring elec- 
tion for a term of ten years. 

The superior court is presided over by a judge 
elected for a term of four years. 

The circuit courts, eighteen in number, are ])re- 
sided over by circuit judges chosen at the spring 
election for six years. The circuit court sits at least 
twice annually in each county. 

The court of probate is presided over by a judge 



OUR GOVERNMENT, PEOPLE, SCHOOLS 



299 



who also is chosen at the spring election for four 
years. 

Every male citizen of the United States above 
twenty-one years of age who has resided in the state 
one year and in the election district where he offers 
to vote at least ten days immediately preceding the 
election may vote at that state election. 




UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN CAMPUS 



AVomen may vote, under the same conditions as to 
age, residence and citizenship, on all school questions 
and at the election of school officers. 

All voting is by ballot on the Australian system. 

When Wisconsin became a state, the number of 
inhabitants was only two hundred fifty thousand, 
about one-tenth of the present number. When we 



300 



THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 




STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, WHITEWATER 



know that this is less than the population of Mil- 
waukee alone to-day, and that it represents an aver- 
age of only five persons to the square mile, as 
compared with forty-one to-day, we can appreciate 
how widely scattered the people w^ere. 

As we know, the earliest influence in the state was 
French, but soon the influx of other nationalities 
made it assume a different character. When the con- 
stitution w^as adojoted, settlers from New York were 
the ones who were the most influential in framing 
that document, although the influence of men from 
New England, and those from Virginia, Kentucky 



OUR GOVERNMENT, PEOPLE, SCHOOLS 301 

and Tennessee in the lead-mining section, also was 
felt. 

The state early encouraged immigration, and has 
continued to favor it, for Wisconsin has natural 
resources and raw materials sufficient to support a 
population much larger than that which she has at 
present. Especially is this true of the northern and 
central portions. 

A writer in the Wisconsin Farmer in the early 
days of statehood asserted that northern and cen- 
tral Wisconsin were an "alternation of arid sand 
ridges and impassable marshes." For general agri- 
cultural purposes this land, even yet, is the poorest 
in the state; but three facts rob this statement of 
much of its force. First, the large cranberry swamps 
of the state are in this belt. The value of these 
swamps per acre is much higher than that of the 
best agricultural land. Secondly, this belt is the 
natural home of the white pine, which tree has made 
vast fortunes for many individuals and companies. 
Thirdly, this soil with proper culture produces large 
crops of potatoes of superior quality. The region 
is sometimes called the ''potato belt." 

Add to these facts that leading authorities on 
dairying are urging that northern Wisconsin may be 
made as rich a dairy section as any other portion 
of the state, and we may see the probability that 
this region will soon support a population as large 
as the others. 



302 Ti'f^E MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

Since 1850, the commissioners of immigration have 
distributed pamphlets to immigrants landing in New 
York and to those embarking in foreign ports, and 
have advertised the advantages of the state in for- 
eign newspapers. In these and various other ways, 
a very desirable class of immigrants has been 
attracted to our borders, and has had a marked 
influence upon our industrial life, our social customs, 
and our political thought. When we know that the 
number of foreign-born citizens is one third that of 
the native-born, and that many of the native-born 
are but one generation removed from the foreign- 
born, we can appreciate how large this determining 
influence on our institutions must of necessity be. 

Such being the case, Wisconsin is fortunate in 
having induced so many Germans and Scandinavians 
to make this their home, the Germans numbering 
nearly forty-five per cent of all the foreign-born, and 
the Scandinavian about eighteen per cent. Many 
other nationalities have contributed to our popula- 
tion — Swiss, Dutch, French, Polish, Belgians, Bohe- 
mians, Cornishmen, and even Icelanders. In many 
cases these people have settled in groups, notably the 
Swiss in New Glarus on the Little Sugar Kiver, the 
Cornishmen in the lead region, and the Icelanders 
on Washington Island in Green Bay. 

AVlien they have not made communities by them- 
selves, these foreigners have readily assimilated with 
the native-born population, thus rapidly becoming 



OUR GOVERNMENT, PEOPLE, SCHOOLS 303 

Americans. If tlie first generation have not learned 
tlie English language, their children have, for the 
state has placed the opportunity to secure an edu- 
cation in easy reach of all children within its 
boundaries, and a compulsory attendance law com- 
pels the parent or guardian to see that every child 
improves this opportunity. In justice to our foreign- 
born citizens, it must be said that there is little 
occasion to enforce this law, for in the main they 
are glad to have their children learn the language 
and attend a school, either parochial or public. 

The school system of Wisconsin did not spring 
full-grown from any one man's mind, but is the out- 
growth of years of thought and experience. The 
pioneers from New England and New York brought 
with them, along with their love for human liberty, 
freedom of speech and of conscience, their belief in 
free education for their children. It is mainly to 
their intelligence and forethought that Wisconsin 
owes her present high rank among her sister states, 
and her unsurpassed system of instruction for her 
people. 

Even before the territory became a state, many 
private schools, made up of the children of neigh- 
boring families, were established. These were the 
beginning of the public school system. 

Denominational schools — academies, colleges and 
seminaries — were inaugurated, but the population 
being scattered, and religious beliefs widely varying, 



304 TH'E MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

adequate financial support was lacking. The state, 
ever beneficent toward education, later helped some 
of these institutions liberally. 

In 1836, the first territorial legislature passed no 
law regarding common schools, not because of lack 
of interest in the matter, but because the Michigan 
system prevailed, as it had while Wisconsin was a 
part of that territory, and there seemed no need for 
immediate change. 

At the second session of the territorial legislature 
a law was passed establishing the University of 
Wisconsin at Madison. This was the first step toward 
higher education, although the university had no 
existence except on paper until twelve years later. 
It now instructs a student body of nearly three thou- 
sand, and is recognized as a leading university in 
central United States. 

In 1839, for the first time, a law was passed insti- 
tuting a system of supervision of the common 
schools, but it was not until 1845 that a free public 
school was established. This was at Kenosha (then 
Southport), a village whose population was made 
up of people from New England and the Middle 
States. 

The great extent of Wisconsin and the rapidity 
with which immigrants poured in, overflowing its 
prairies, river valleys and forests, delayed for sev- 
eral years any well organized school system, but 
when the state constitution was adopted, provision 



OUR GOVERNMENT, PEOPLE, SCHOOLS 305 

was made for free district schools and for adequate 
support and supervision of the same. Liberal grants 
of land were made, not only for the maintenance of 
these schools, but also for normal schools for the 
training of teachers. 

For the first few years, the income from the school 
fund was large enough only for the common schools ; 
hence no normal schools were established, there being 
an attempt in the meantime to give normal training 
in the university and in a few high schools and 
academies. This was so unsatisfactory that in 1865 
the passage of a bill was secured making liberal 
allowance for distinctively normal schools. The first 
one was opened at Platteville in 1866, and the second 
at Whitewater in 1868. There are now seven of 
these schools, the others being located at Oshkosh 
(1871), River Falls (1875), Milwaukee (1885), Ste- 
vens Point (1894), Superior (1896). An eighth is to 
be opened at La Crosse in 1909. These schools have 
on an average over twenty-five thousand students 
enrolled annuahy. 

The system of free high schools, as it prevails at 
present, was established in 1875. Previous to this 
there were twenty-five independent high schools in 
cities, and nearly four hundred graded schools out- 
side of cities. Most of these schools reorganized 
as free high schools under the law, accepting state 
aid in their support. There are now in the state 
about two hundred of these schools having a four- 



30G THE MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

years ' course, and forty having a three-years ' course. 
The state also maintains a school for the feeble- 
minded at Chippewa Falls, a school for dependent 




NORMAL SCHOOL AT STEVENS POINT 

children at Sparta, one for the blind at Janesville, 
one for deaf-mutes at Delavan, and an industrial 
school for boys at Waukesha. 

A system of teachers' institutes supported by the 
state has contributed largely to the progress and 
efficiency of the work of the common schools. This 



OUR GOVERNMENT, PEOPLE, SCHOOLS 307 

system has been a matter of growth and adaptation, 
beginning in 1853 with what were known as ' ' tempo- 
rary normal schools" held in various localities by 
the state superintendent. At the present time, an 
able corps of instructors gives instruction to un- 
trained rural and grade teachers in every county in 
the state for two or three weeks every summer. 

These institutions have been beneficial not only 
in improving the scholarship in the common school 
branches and in promoting knowledge of better 
methods of instruction, but also in creating a spirit 
of professional pride and emulation. 

Bealizing the necessity for raising her common 
schools to the highest possible degree of efficiency, 
the state has organized and now maintains twenty 
county training schools for teachers. The legisla- 
ture has, at various times, appropriated money suf- 
ficient to pay two thirds of the running expenses of 
these schools. Their location has been determined 
by the counties themselves, any county securing one 
by voting the other one third of the expenses. The 
full number — twenty — has now been established. 
In these schools, teachers for the rural schools are 
being better fitted for their work. 

In connection with these, county agricultural 
schools have been established in several counties, the 
state here also aiding in paying the running ex- 
penses. Here the young men and women of the 
county may at slight expense receive training in the 



308 TH'E MAKING OF WISCONSIN 

science and art of agriculture, manual training and 
domestic science. 

The state also has appropriated money to give 
aid to smaller communities maintaining graded 
schools of two or three departments. The law 
requires a higher standard of scholarship for teach- 
ers in these schools than in the common schools. In 
time, as the community increases in population, these 
schools grow into three- and four-year high schools. 

In conclusion, it may be said of our state: If 
fruitful soils are wanted, they are here; if clear, 
invigorating climate is desired, here it is found; if 
pure water is deemed a necessity, that necessity is 
found here in all its fullness; if ample rainfall is 
demanded, there is no lack ; if water-power is needed, 
many streams furnish it in abundance ; if sport with 
rod and gun is desired, here may be found the para- 
dise of hunters and fishermen; if scenic beauty is 
asked for, Wisconsin's wooded lakes and streams 
delight the eye; if good schools are necessary, here 
they are found, open and free to rich and poor alike. 
In short, Wisconsin's natural resources and beauties, 
her industrial facilities and educational advantages 
are unsurpassed by any state in the Union. 

The motto of the state is the watchword of her 
citizens— FOEWARD ! 



GOVEENORS OF WISCONSIN 

Nelson Dewey, Lancaster 1848-1852 

Leonakd J. Farwei.l, Madison 1852-1854 

William A. Barstow, Waukesha 1854-1856 

Arthur Mc Arthur, Milwaukee. . . .Mar. 21-25, 1856 

Coles Bashford, Oshkosh 1856-1858 

Alex. W. Randall, Waukesha 1858-1862 

Louis P. Harvey, Shopiere. . . .'.Jan. 6-Apr. 19, 1862 

Edward Salomon, Milwaukee 1862-1864 

James T. Lewis, Columbus 1864-1866 

Lucius Fairchild, Madison 1866-1872 

C. C. Washburn, La Crosse 1872-1874 

William R. Taylor, Cottage Grove 1874-1876 

Harrison Ludington, Milwaukee 1876-1878 

William E. Smith, Milwaukee 1878-1882 

Jeremiah M. Rusk, Viroqua 1882-1889 

William D. Hoard, Fort Atkinson 1889-1891 

George W. Peck, Milwaukee 1891-1895 

William H. Upham, Marshfield 1895-1897 

Edward Scofield, Oconto 1897-1901 

Robert M. LaFollette, Madison 1901-1906 

James 0. Davidson, Soldiers ' Grove 1906- 



309 



BADGER SONG. 

Words by Eben E. Rexford. Music by J. M. Stillman, Mus. Doc, 

Principal of the School of Music of Milton College, Milton, Wis. 

3Iay be sung as a ^^ioio and Chorus. 

March time. M. M. J - lOIi-. ^ ^ 






PIANO or REED ORGAN. 



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1. Oh, moth-er Wis-con - sin, we bring thee A trib - ute ofliom-age and 

2. Wis - con- sin, thou true-heart-ed moth-er Of sons that went forth to the 

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3. Oh, moth - er Wis-con - sin, thy hon - or Is dear to our young hearts to 

4. Oh, Thou who art God of the na - tions, In Thee and Thy strength do we 

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Copyright, 1895. by H. W. Rood. By permission of H. W. Rood. Madison. Wis., 
from whom music may be ordered for ten cents. 



BADGER SONG— Continued. 



1 



3: 



And 



love for our home 
laid down their lives 



pride ; 
fray, 



land we sing 
for thy hon 



thee; 
or, 



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What 
What 



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day; Thy dead sons were stead- 

trust; We know that Thine arm 



fast and loy - al, 
is al- might - y, 



Shall 
Our 




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gift has thy boun - ty de - nied? 
pride thrills thy bos - om to - day! 



To - day from 
Thy he - roes 



the Fa - ther 
are nev - er 



of 
for- 




BADGER SONG-Continued. 



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To the lake that is fair 
Tho' dead, they shall live 

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as a sea, 
in thy love, 



From thy 
And their 




hon - or, 
Fa - ther. 



We 
Be 



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love thee as loved they who died; 
led in ^ the path - ways of peace; 

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pines to thy prai-ries thy chil - dren 
u val - or be told while the ban- ner 




Come singing thy prais-es to thee. 
They died for is float-irg a - bove. 



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SEEEE: 

them will we give all, if need be, 
thee, our most beau-ti-ful moth- er. 



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To guard the dear home of our pride. 
May the love of thy chil-dren in-crease. 



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BADGER SONG— Concluded 



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All hail to our mother Wis-con - sin! 



Oh, join ev-'ry voice in the strain ! 



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All hail to our mother Wis-con- sin! Oh, join ev-'ry voice in the strain! 



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Wis - con -sin, Wis-con-sin, for- ev - er! 




HIGH SCHOOL HISTORIES 

Outlines of Ancient, Medieval and 
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FIRST STEPS 

in English Composition 

By DR. H. a PETERSON 
Of the Crane High School - Chicago, Illinois 



Revised and Enlarged Edition 

THIS book, as was the first edition, is made for the eighth, 
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IV. and V. Environment Sketches. 
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XI. The Real Description— Including also letter 
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XIII. The Story. 

XIV. Capitalization. 

XV. Punctuation. 

XVI. Elementary Rhetoric. 

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